2024 Garagiste Terre Maritime Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsula

Everything in a chardonnay that I fall for is on full display with Terre Maritime. It’s flinty, citrusy, with dabs of white stone fruit and ginger spice. Beautiful texture, glistening, a real purity within. It’s complex, detailed yet so refined, compelling all the way through to the last drop. Again, tops the charts as the finest chardonnay on the peninsula. The benchmark.

97 points Special Value Jane Faulkner winecompanion.com.au

Garagiste Terre Maritime Chardonnay from the Mornington Peninsula is a taut, maritime-influenced white that reflects both its cool southern coastal origins and Barnaby Flanders’ precise, minimal-intervention winemaking style. The fruit is sourced from a single site in Flinders, the coolest and most ocean-exposed subregion of the Peninsula, where strong Bass Strait breezes, long ripening seasons and volcanic clay soils produce Chardonnay of striking freshness and mineral drive.

Barnaby Flanders, who founded Garagiste with a focus on small-batch, site-specific wines, treats this fruit with the utmost care. The handpicked grapes are whole-bunch pressed and fermented with indigenous yeasts in a mix of seasoned French oak barriques and puncheons, with a modest proportion of new oak to add texture without overpowering the fruit. The wine is matured on lees for added savoury depth, with bâtonnage kept to a minimum to preserve tension and purity.

In the glass, Terre Maritime shows a pale lemon hue and offers aromas of white nectarine, citrus blossom, lemon curd and crushed seashell, with subtle hints of hazelnut and flint. The palate is finely structured and saline, with bright acidity carrying layers of stone fruit, grapefruit zest and wet stone minerality, finishing long and mouth-watering. It is a Chardonnay that speaks clearly of its coastal terroir — restrained, elegant and built to evolve.

It is an exceptional match for freshly shucked oysters, grilled whiting with lemon and capers, or a delicate crab and fennel salad. While irresistible in its youth, it will develop further complexity over the next 6 to 8 years.