2025 Bannockburn Winery Block Chardonnay, Geelong

Whole-bunch pressed, fermented and matured in French hogsheads and puncheons (40% new); 75% mlf. An intense, rich bouquet of yellow pear, citrus peel, spice and oyster shell. It's ripe and mouth-filling, to be sure, but also nicely delineated, with an even thread of acidity giving the wine structure and length through to its long finale. Lovely now, but history also tells us it will age well. Drink to 2032.

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

The certified organic Winery Block was planted in 1981 during the construction of the winery itself. The P58 Chardonnay, also known as the Old Penfolds Clone, is planted here in topsoils that range from sandy to dark clay, over weathered basalt and limestone. For over four decades this block has formed the textural core of Bannockburn's Estate Chardonnay. The consistent citrus, struck match and orchard fruit character that runs through every vintage of that wine traces back here.

The handpicked parcels of fruit were 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 final blend). The wine was 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.