2025 Moorilla Praxis Chardonnay Musque, Tamar Valley

I like this chardonnay. It's got plenty of character and verve. Juicy lime, peach, grapefruit and papaya with blossomy top notes, crushed stone, rose petal, apple turnover, clotted cream and soft spice. Textural and slinky with a swift mineral cadence and a little more tropical nuance sliding in on the palate. Drink to 2031.

93 points Special Value Dave Brookes for Halliday Wine Companion, April 2026

This wine comes from the warm and dry 2025 season, conditions that in Tamar Valley were balanced by surprisingly cool night temperatures, affording growers a relatively trouble-free year with abundant fruit yields of good quality.

Made from the aromatic and reasonably rare Burgundian Entav 809 clone of Chardonnay, the crushed fruit skins were allowed to soak in the juice for four hours before cold settling for five days ahead of fermentation with two select strains of yeasts. The wine rested for four months ahead of bottling in early July.

Vibrant and with distinct muscat aromas, this is not your usual Chardonnay. Drink young with fresh South East Asian dishes such as master-stock poached chicken with green mango and coconut salad.

About this producer

Moorilla was established in 1958 by Claudio Alcorso, making it one of Tasmania's oldest vineyards and a genuine pioneer of cool-climate viticulture in the state. The estate expanded to the St Matthias Vineyard on the western banks of Tamar River in later years, and it is from this site that this wine draws fruit from. The east facing slope features loamy clay soils with high rock content and benefits from the long, cool ripening conditions of northern Tasmania, producing aromatic whites of real precision and mineral clarity.