2025 Patrick Sullivan Bull Swamp Chardonnay, Gippsland

The suite of ‘25s from Mr Chardonnay is something else: complex, detailed, rich yet refined and delicious. While there’s a mid-gold hue to this, it’s bright and super fresh. Expect a range of flavours – from yellow peach and citrus to grilled nuts and spice – with a juicy fruit fleshiness across the fuller-bodied palate. Luscious lees with flavours of ginger cream and sweet, cedary oak infuse the palate, with acidity kicking in to keep this in line. Very tasty. Drink to 2035.

97 points & Special Value Jane Faulkner for Halliday Wine Companion, May 2026

The 2025 Bull Swamp Chardonnay leads with a magnificent nose of almond meal, white peach, salted lemon rind, vanilla sponge and even a hint—the merest—of curry leaf. In the mouth, this is flinty, salty and electric in its acid line and creamy/mealy through the finish. This is a little bit of everything in one glass, and I absolutely love it. There's a rawness and openness to this wine that is compelling. Drink to 2035.

96 points Erin Larkin for The Wine Advocate, April 2026

Medium-deep yellow colour, deep for its age, the bouquet full of forward developed vanilla, malt, toasted bread and roasted hazelnuts, while the palate is full bodied and firmly structured with a touch of astringency supplied by lively acidity and substantial tannins leaving a trace of bitterness that would diminish with time or food. This is a wine of formidable intensity and structure, built to age and to partner food.  Drink to 2040.

93 points Huon Hooke for The Real Review, March 2026

The fruit for this wine came from the Bull Swamp vineyard in the Warragul township of Gippsland. The warm and sunny site was planted in the early-1980s by the Farrington family with vines standing in deep volcanic soils at an elevation of 100 metres with a northerly aspect. The fruit for this vine comes from the oldest P58 clones in the vineyard.

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 rich 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 charcoal-grilled rock lobsters or king prawns dressed in ginger infused ghee and tempered curry leaves. Slow-braised rabbit cooked in white wine with fennel, green olives and pancetta should work well, too.

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.