2025 Utzinger Black Label Chardonnay, Tamar Valley

The Black Label range represents the top tier of Utzinger’s production, selected from the finest parcels of estate grown fruit and crafted with a minimalist touch.

The 2025 vintage of the Utzinger Black Label Chardonnay pours a bright golden yellow and opens with a slightly reductive nose, with exposure to air slowly revealing ripe yellow stone fruit aromas and a complex mix of roasted hazelnuts, smoky charcuteries and flintiness. Taut and elegant, the expansive and harmonious palate leans towards a fuller body, the flavour stretching to a lengthy finish.

Open this for a weekend lunch with friends or on a day night, and savour over dishes that match its weight without smothering its fine natural acidity. Try with pan seared bugs or prawns over a bed of garbanzo puree, drizzled with brown butter, sage and smoky salt flakes, or a white miso glazed, crispy pork belly served with pickled green apples and roasted Ginko nuts.

More about this wine

The fruit for this wine was mainly from the Gin-Gin and 76 clone of Chardonnay vines. Handpicked, whole bunch pressed, shortly settled and fermented with indigenous yeasts in all-new French oak puncheons, the wine was allowed full malolactic conversion and spent nine months on full lees followed by a two-month rest in stainless steel after blending, and was lightly filtered prior to bottling.

About this producer

Utzinger Wines is the Tamar Valley label of Mattias and Lauren Utzinger, he a Swiss-born winemaker, she a Tasmanian girl he met while travelling. They’ve farmed their high-density certified organic vineyard near Legana on the western slopes of the Tamar River since 2018. The five-hectare site has a northeasterly aspect and is planted primarily to Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Shiraz, with wines sitting in brown dermosol soils rich in ironstone gravel over moisture holding clay subsoils.

The black label wines are made from fruit grown in their own vineyard, while the white labels blend also use fruit from vineyards leased and managed by Matthias and Lauren.