2025 Patrick Sullivan Ada River Chardonnay, Gippsland

The stars are aligned, as this is the finest Ada River to date. Pristine yet powerful. Full of flavour yet everything corralled by fine acidity. Excellent citrus-based fruit flavours, woodsy spices, ginger flower and just a smidge of creamy lees. There's such length to this. There’s definition, complexity, layers of texture as the palate builds to a crescendo, allowing everything that is so great about this wine to fall into place. Drink to 2036.

97+ points Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, June 2026

The 2025 Ada River Chardonnay is an abundantly interesting wine. The texture on the middle palate is immediately the first aspect that makes an impression, with real, chewy width. The acidity tethers the wine to the length through the finish, making for engaging, electric drinking. Drink to 2035.

95 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, April 2026

Medium-full yellow, a precocious colour for its youth. Malt, creamed hazelnuts, nougat, caramel and almond aromas, a hint of dried apricot, the palate rich and full-bodied, powerful and big flavoured, with rounded structure and a firm but slightly astringent finish. Very good but more time recommended. Drink to 2038.

94 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, March 2026

The fruit for this wine came from the Ada River vineyard at Neerim South of Gippsland. The small one-hectare site in the foothills of Mount Baw Baw was planted in 1982 by the Kelleher family with P58- and I10V1-clone vines standing in deep volcanic soils over basaltic rock at an elevation of 300 metres. Dry grown, the vineyard is surrounded by windbreaks on all sides, protecting it from the occasionally harsh winds.

The fruit was handpicked, whole bunch crushed and drained to stainless steel for settling. Fermentation took place in oak barriques of which 30% were new, with the wine staying in the barrels for a total of eleven months during which it was lees stirred weekly post-primary fermentation until it had gone through full malolactic conversion.

While enjoyable on release, this powerful Chardonnay will look splendid with a bit more time in the bottle allowing to expand into its full-bodied self. Decant if opening now to allow plenty of air and enjoy with thyme and garlic butter-basted turkey served with a creamy root vegetable purée, or pan-seared mulloway with a silken matsutake dashi.

About this producer

Patrick Sullivan is a Gippsland-based Chardonnay-specialist whose focus is on single vineyard expressions of volcanic sites within the local Baw Baw Shire. Fruit is also bought from exceptional growers in Yarra Valley, Henty and the Limestone Coast.

Patrick lives with his wife Megan and their children on Tumblestone Farm in Ellinbank. The property houses his winery and will also provide his currently negociant-modelled business with estate grown fruit in the long term.