97 Points | Toni Paterson, Halliday Wine Companion

The palate is beautifully complete with breadth and generosity while being refined and restrained simultaneously. The beauty in this wine is the micro detail giving discreet, sophisticated complexity. It has impressive balance and flow, and I expect it to evolve beautifully with time.

95 Points | Ned Goodwin, James Suckling

The flagship, yet with only 10% new oak. 40- 50% used oak, mind you. The most tightly knit and paradoxically, at least from an initial tasting perspective, the most intense of these chardonnays. Peach crumble, vanilla pod and cinnamon stick. There is a wonderful, midweight flamboyance here, typical of region, corseted by well-pointed acidity and classy oak. A chardonnay for the hedonists as much as for the sophisticates. Drink or hold. Screw cap.

95+ Points | Gary Walsh, Wine Front

Nutty nougat, white peach, spice and assorted citrus. There’s a little cedar spice oak, but wonderful volume of peach and citrus flavour, fine chalky and flinty texture, fennel seed perfume, a lovely toasty roundness mixed with citrine tang, fine bones with juiciness, and a zesty citrus finish of excellent length. Maybe a little peachy, but so much potential. It will be all that and more, with a couple of years in the cellar. How is it so!

Overview 

Vat 47 Chardonnay comes entirely from our Short Flat vineyard, where the original Chardonnay vines were planted by Murray Tyrrell in 1968. The soil profile in this dry-grown vineyard is unlike that of any of our other vineyards, which gives Vat 47 its unique character.

All of the fruit was handpicked in between February 2 and 12, which is approximately two weeks later than 2021. The fruit was immediately basket-pressed, then the juice was then cold settled for two days before being racked to stainless steel tanks to begin fermentation. The fermenting juice was then transferred to French oak barriques to complete fermentation and maturation before bottling in October.

The nose is classic Vat 47 with delicate citrus and white stone fruit with a hint of creaminess and oak spice. The palate is medium-bodied and shows tightly focused Chardonnay fruit that is balanced by textural elements derived from the solids ferment and extended time on yeast lees. The purity, intensity, and length of fruit is quite similar to 2021, if not a touch better.

Alcohol – 13.3% / Cellaring – 10-15 years