Wine of the week: Australian chardy that puts France to shame

Every wine from this Australian vineyard is sensational, bursting with elan and value, says Matthew Jukes.

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2006 Petaluma Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills, South Australia (£15.19, waitrosewine.com; £18.00, bibendum-wine.co.uk).

One of my most memorable tastings of the year was at Petaluma, in the Adelaide Hills, where Andrew (Ox) Hardy showed me his latest array of unreleased wines.

Without exception, every single wine on show was the best of its kind that I have ever tasted. There was even a 2010 Hanlin Hill 'Cordon Cut' riesling which will no doubt become next year's most sought-after, cult sweetie.

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Petaluma is set to remind us all why it is such a revered name in the Aussie wine hierarchy. Every wine style, whether it is the riesling, chardonnay, shiraz, viognier or its awesome Coonawarra red blend, is on sensational form. You should sprint out and buy this featured chardy or their Grand Cru-like, single-vineyard version 2006 Petaluma Tiers (£35.99, marksandspencer.com; £35.00, majestic.co.uk) as soon as you can.

The lan and value offered by these wines puts France (and the rest of the world) to shame. If you want to meet Ox and three other wine-making superstars in the flesh then make a diary date for 27 January 2011 I will be hosting an incredible, one-off event in the City of London.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.