2025 Oliver’s Taranga Small Batch Fiano, McLaren Vale

Sourced from five estate blocks, from six to 21 years old. Pressed mainly to steel, with about 15% in concrete eggs and 10% in second and third passage French oak; high solids with natural yeasts, 25% mlf, and no additions until sulphur at bottling. It’s another excellent release, with the warm and dry year highlighting what a great variety this is for the Vale. Golden apples, preserved lemon, grapefruit pith, sea spray, tonic, a hint of lemon curd and oyster shells. There’s intensity of fruit here, with a textural roundness preceding a pithily racy drive, suspending the flavours long.

95 points Special Value Marcus Ellis winecompanion.com.au

The Oliver’s Taranga Small Batch Fiano from McLaren Vale is a beautifully expressive white wine that captures both the vibrancy of the Fiano grape and the innovation of one of the Vale’s oldest family-run estates. The Oliver family has farmed their land since 1841, and today sixth-generation winemaker Corrina Wright leads the way in crafting wines that celebrate heritage while embracing new directions. Fiano, a southern Italian grape native to Campania, has proven perfectly suited to McLaren Vale’s Mediterranean climate, producing whites with flavour, texture and excellent ageing potential.

The fruit for this small-batch wine is grown on the estate’s Blewitt Springs vineyards, where sandy soils and cooling sea breezes help retain natural acidity and freshness. Grapes are handpicked and fermented with wild yeasts, with a portion matured on lees in seasoned French oak to build texture and savoury depth without overpowering the purity of fruit. The result is a wine that combines lift, energy and structure with complexity and finesse.

In the glass, it shows a pale straw colour with green tints. Aromatically it is fresh yet layered, offering citrus zest, nashi pear and white peach alongside hints of almond, fennel seed and chamomile. On the palate it is medium-bodied, textural and vibrant, with stone fruit and citrus flavours wrapped around a chalky mineral core. The lees ageing contributes a subtle creamy note, leading into a long, saline and savoury finish.

Food pairings reflect its versatility: salt and pepper squid, grilled prawns, roast chicken with lemon and thyme, or vegetarian dishes like ricotta and herb gnocchi, zucchini fritters or roasted fennel. It is delightful now for its brightness but has the capacity to age gracefully for 5 to 7 years, developing nutty, honeyed complexity.