2024 Rosenthal The Marker Chardonnay, Pemberton

Here is a wine that balances the modern leaner style with the richer older style. It’s from Pemberton in this warm year. On the nose an immediate invasion of nectarine and creamy roasted cashew hits. It’s intense and beautifully engaging. Then the palate delivers with slightly more restraint than you might expect but still with a deep penetrating intensity and a very long finish. Has a lovely lick of lemon twisting through the finish.

93 points rayjordanwine.com.au

Rosenthal The Marker Chardonnay from Pemberton is a beautifully crafted cool-climate white that offers remarkable value and stylistic finesse. Made by winemakers Luke Eckersley and Coby Ladwig, this is a Chardonnay that brings together precision, texture, and a quiet nod to classic techniques, modern in approach, but grounded in timeless craftsmanship.

The fruit is sourced from select vineyards in Pemberton, a cool and elevated region in Western Australia’s southwest that’s gaining serious attention for Chardonnay. The combination of coastal influence, high rainfall, and ancient karri loam soils provides the ideal conditions for growing fruit with vibrant acidity, delicate aromatics, and fine structure.

Luke Eckersley and Coby Ladwig, two highly respected winemakers with deep experience in Western Australia, take a minimalist, hands-off approach to The Marker. The grapes are whole bunch pressed, wild fermented in a mix of new and seasoned French oak, and left on lees for several months with occasional stirring to build texture and savoury complexity. The wine is unfined and only lightly filtered at bottling to preserve purity.

In the glass, it shows notes of lemon curd, white peach, nougat, struck match and gentle spice. The palate is finely textured and elegant, with citrus drive, creamy lees weight, and a chalky mineral finish that lingers with precision and poise. There’s real energy here, balanced by a soft, old-world savouriness that speaks to great winemaking.

Perfect with roast chicken, miso-glazed cod, or grilled peaches with goat cheese, The Marker Chardonnay is a serious wine at an approachable price, a modern Australian white with classic bones.