2023 Dalwhinnie Moonambel Chardonnay, Pyrenees

Individual in character, with a cascade of bright stone fruits, melon and grapefruit, with oak playing a prominent role, finishing with a peacock's tail of intense sweet-fruit flavours. The wine has great energy and uplift, but also depth, breadth and texture. Sugared almond and sulfide nuances add complexity. Heady, assertive and delicious. Drink to 2030.

95 points Toni Paterson for Halliday Wine Companion, June 2025

Light straw-yellow hue; lots of smoky reduction with traces of charcuterie, malt and almond-meal. The wine is minerally in the mouth, with a streak of stony, solidsy complexity that is quite old fashioned European, emphasising secondary rather than primary fruit flavours. This is different—and full of interest. Drink to 2031.

90 points Huon Hooke for the Real Review, December 2024

The estate grown fruit for this wine was handpicked and whole bunch pressed, with the cloudy juice directed immediately to a combination of new, second and third use French oak puncheons and barriques for the fermentation which took place with endemic yeasts over three weeks. The barrels were topped up post-fermentation and the wine matured for a further nine months before careful selection of barrels that were used for the final blend of the wine.

About this producer

The foundations of Dalwhinnie were laid in 1973 when Ballarat-based architect Ewan Jones purchased a property in Moonambel, in the heart of what is now the Pyrenees wine region of Victoria.

The sheltered, amphitheatre like site sits at an elevation just shy of 600 metres. Its first vines were planted in 1976 and stand in fragile, infertile soils that receive most of their modest annual rain fall from late winter to late spring, the sloping grounds providing good drainage for both water and air, with frosts never a threat for this high elevation vineyard. The vines receive no irrigation water and are farmed to organic principles.

The key varieties in the 16-hectare vineyard are Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, with smaller blocks of Viognier, Pinot Noir and Sangiovese used for blending and experimental purposes. The majority of the fruit used for the Dalwhinnie wines is estate grown, with some sourced from other growers in the region for the Mesa-labelled wines and the fruit used for the Tasmanian Three Valleys Pinot Noir-blend.

Dalwhinnie been part of Fogarty Hall Wine Group’s steadily growing portfolio of premium wine producers since 2020. Winemaking is guided by the group’s highly regarded chief winemaker Julian Langworthy and relies on Dalwhinnie’s viticulturist Sam Bartlett’s efforts in crafting these now legendary wines.