2024 Wild Duck Creek White Duck, Heathcote

The palate is medium-weight with a rounded, textural mouthfeel balanced by fresh acidity, providing notes of stone fruit, citrus oil and crushed rocks. Generous yet focused, it has a slightly phenolic finish. Drink now or hold.

93 points James Suckling, September 2025

The 2024 White Duck comprises Roussanne, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc and Viognier, and the blend comes through a little more obviously here than it does in the distinctly savory 2025 tasted alongside. This wine is softer and a little fatter than the 2025, with more width and plushness on the palate. As with the 2025, the grapes were destemmed and pressed, then fermented in large 2,250-liter French oak foudres and smaller French oak barrels. The wine matures on the yeast lees for six months. Drink to 2034.

92 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, December 2025

A blend of roussanne/marsanne/grenache blanc/viognier. Noted Rhône grape specialist Liam Anderson offers the taste of summer all year round with this well-priced charmer. Aromas of honeysuckle, citrus, spiced apple and pear. Lifted aromatics are such a joyful part of the wine so, too, the softly textured mid-palate mouthfeel, courtesy of a splash of new oak (10%). Delicious fresh citrus, cut apple and lemon curd finish.

91 points Special Value Jeni Port for Halliday Wine Companion, January 2025

The 2024 White Duck is simply delicious. It pours with a luminous, shiny pale-yellow, and opens with a happy nose of sun-warm apricots, ripe quince and a touch of lemon sweets and fresh caramel. The harmonious palate is rounded and lightly textured, the generous fruit flavours surrounded by light creaminess and underpinned by an intrinsic line of acidity.

This radiates sunshine and offers a bright, comforting burst of warmth. Pop a bottle, and treat yourself to a creamy chicken and leek pot pie or indulge in baked camembert with honey, rosemary and roasted apricots.

More about this wine

This wine is a blend of traditional Rhone Valley varieties Roussanne, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc and Viognier. The destaemmed grapes were fermented in a mix of large seasoned 2250L French oak foudres and smaller barrels. Thye wine rested for six-month on lees before the components were blended.

About Wild Duck Creek

Founder David Anderson was just 21 years old in 1974 when he planted the first vines for what was to become Wild Duck Creek. Over the last five decades he has continued putting vines in the ground with his son Liam across their home in Victoria’s Heathcote region.

Their ten sustainably farmed vineyards now cover 46 hectares. No herbicides or synthetic fertilisers are used in the vineyards, and all winery waste is composted and spread across vineyards when mature. The sustainable thinking extends beyond the vine rows, with vacant land on the properties being continuously re-planted with local grass, shrub and tree species, and the business at large running with 100% renewable energy.