2024 Bannockburn Winery Block Chardonnay, Geelong

The premier release of this wine, from vines planted in 1981 to clone P58. Aromas of lemon confit, struck matches, grilled citrus, grapefruit, salted nuts, sea spray and white flowers. The palate is textural, with a fine line of acidity and layers of complex, densely packed fruit around a mineral core. Great tension and purity, with a fine backbone for aging. Excellent. Drink or hold.

96 points James Suckling, August 2025

Whole-bunch pressed and fermented and matured in French hogsheads and puncheons (40% new); 100% mlf. A very bright green gold. With its aromas of white nectarine, sea spray, gently grilled cashew and just a hint of fresh vanillin, this is engaging from the moment you stick your nose in the glass. Like the '23, this is simultaneously mouth-filling, textured and has enough backbone to ensure that it will continue to evolve over the next six to eight years at least. Drink 2025 to 2033.

95+ points Philip Rich for Halliday Wine Companion, November 2025

The 2024 Winery Block Chardonnay is exotically spiced and savory both on the nose and in the mouth, with lashings of flavor, acidity and texture all piled on. There's sandalwood, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, yellow peach, biscuit, sourdough, green/raw almonds, dried rosemary/herbs and so much more. It's really an intriguing wine. The vineyard is planted to the P58 clone (1981), and this shines through clearly on the palate in its nutty, creamy way. This is very good indeed. Drink 2025 to 2040.

95 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, December 2025

Mid-straw and bright in the glass. Complex aromas of just-ripe white stone fruit, white flowers, spice, nougat, grapefruit pith and a touch of nettle. Rich, textured and mouth-filling, with a core of stone fruit, melon, nutty oak and shapely acidity. Impressive length and presence. Drink 2025 to 2035.

95 points Aaron Brasher for The Real Review, November 2025

This is stellar. It’s a wine of both power and length and with a bit of extra character as well. Apples, peaches, slips of pear skin and nuts, perhaps some stonefruit pips as well, or certainly something that seems both fruity and woody at once. It’s not reticent or restrained but nor is it exaggerated; it’s alive with flavour, fit and firing you could say, ripped with muscle and energy. Touch and go for 96. In any case it’s superb.

95 points Campbell Mattinson for The Wine Front

Stuart Hooper planted the first vines at Bannockburn in 1974 with a clear ambition: to produce wines that could stand alongside the great estates of Burgundy. Fifty years on, the estate has made good on that ambition. The 26 blocks of estate vines, some of the oldest in the Geelong region, include the Serré vineyard planted in 1984. Farming across the estate is organic, yields are tightly restricted, and the Moorabool Valley's low-fertility soils and continental climate do the rest. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are the foundation, but the range extends further, and every wine is made from estate fruit alone.

The certified organic Winery Block was planted in 1981 during the construction of the winery itself. The P58 Chardonnay, also known as the Old Penfolds Clone, is planted here in topsoils that range from sandy to dark clay, over weathered basalt and limestone. For over four decades this block has formed the textural core of Bannockburn's Estate Chardonnay. The consistent citrus, struck match and orchard fruit character that runs through every vintage of that wine traces back here.

The 2024 is the first release of the Winery Block as a standalone barrel selection, the kind of wine a French producer might call a Tête de Cuvée. Whole bunch pressed, wild fermented in French oak hogsheads, 40% new, with full malolactic fermentation.

The result is a Bannockburn Chardonnay in concentrated form — lemon confit, white nectarine, grapefruit, struck match and sea spray on the nose with grilled cashew, spice and a faint vanilla thread. The palate is textural and mouth-filling, layered and complex, with a bright streak of chalky acidity pulling everything to a long, precise finish. Power and finesse are held in balance in a wine with serious cellaring potential ahead of it.

The wine's stone fruit richness and mineral line suit something clean and well sourced: a pan-seared blue eye trevalla with beurre blanc and capers, or a roast chicken with tarragon butter and good bread.

Drink now through 2035.