2025 Bannockburn S.R.H. Chardonnay Magnum 1.5L, Geelong

From a 12-row block of P58 clone planted in '76. Matured in French hogsheads and puncheons (40% new); 70% mlf. A very bright green gold. Interestingly, this is the most restrained and subtle of Bannockburn's '25 chardonnays, and, no surprise, also the most complex. Aromas of perfectly ripened stone fruits, orange pith and lemongrass precede a tightly wound palate that's really concentrated without being remotely heavy. A superb wine with a magnificent future. Drink to 2034.

98+ points & Special Value Philip Rich for Halliday Wine Companion, October 2026

What an exceptional bottling, just waiting to evolve over time. Aromas of grapefruit sliced lemons, chalk, salted nuts, struck match and wet stones. The palate is tense and nervy, with bright acidity and pithy, compact fruit. Long, mouthwatering finish. A pure, nervy wine with years ahead of it. Made from vines planted in 1976, with 70% malolactic fermentation and 30% new French oak. Drink or hold.

97 points Ryan Montgomery for James Suckling, September 2026

The S.R.H. is named after Bannockburn founder and regional pioneer Stuart Reginald Hooper, with fruit coming from a 1976 planted twelve-row parcel in the middle of the estate’s north-facing Olive Tree Hill vineyard with vines standing in complex soils of clay, limestone and marine sediment.

The handpicked fruit for this wine was whole bunch pressed and the juice settled overnight before it was racked to French oak barrels of which 40% were new. Fermented with endemic yeasts, 70% of the parcels went through malolactic conversion during the ten-month maturation on lees.

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.