2025 Bannockburn Grigsby Chardonnay, Geelong

From a 0.4ha close-planted vineyard. Barrel fermented and matured in hogsheads (40% new), with 75% mlf. A touch sunnier than the Winery Block, offering aromas of white peach, Golden Delicious apple, frangipani and a subtle briny note. Even better on the palate, which is focused and very well structured, before finishing saline and long. Should age very well over the next four to six years. Drink to 2032.

96+ points Philip Rich for Halliday Wine Companion, October 2026

The small high-density Grigsby block was planted in 2007 and grafted to the Bernard 76 clone of Chardonnay in 2019. This clone was introduced by Lucas and winemaker Matt Holmes to expand Bannockburn’s clonal palette beyond the Penfolds clones planted in the early years.

The early ripening site features dark clays over subsoils of weathered basalt and limestone and tends to produce concentrated wines with a broad range of flavours. It is named after viticulturalist Lucas Grigsby who has been at Bannockburn since 1987.

The handpicked fruit was whole bunch pressed, settled overnight and racked to French oak hogsheads for fermentation with indigenous yeasts. Approximately 40% of the barrels were new, and malolactic conversion was allowed to occur naturally (75% of the blend). The parcels were left mostly unstirred on lees for ten months prior to blending and bottling.

About this producer

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.