Wine of the week: This sleek Chardonnay is a steal

It's the soil, climate and passion that make the 2010 Prominent Hill single vineyard Chardonnay so shockingly nerve-tingling, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
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2010 Prominent Hill, Single Vineyard Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills, South Australia (£14.99, reduced to £11.99 until 13 September, Waitrose).

This heavenly wine and its sibling Shiraz, subject to the same deal for the same period, are made by the mind-blowingly talented team at The Lane, in the Adelaide Hills. Situated a short drive from the village of Hahndorf, high in the hills above Adelaide, this idyllic estate is one of my favourite in the whole of the wine world. With very special terroir indeed, virtually every wine that they make here is exceptional. The tag line every berry grown in our back yard' says it all. It's the soil, climate and passion that make this estate's wines so shockingly pure and nerve-tingling. Prominent Hill is the label that they make for Waitrose and this is a very mildly oaked wine with an incredible, ethereal texture and a lithe, languid finish. If you are remotely turned on by top flight Chablis (Dauvissat, Moreau, Raveneau, Tribut etc.) then you have come to the right place.

This wine effortlessly captures the drama and tension present in these Chablis, but without the more austere notes, and then embeds them into the sleekest Chardonnay you have seen in years. Slippery, seductive and incredibly well-priced: dive in. You don't need me to push you, do you?

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

Matthew Jukes
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.

 

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