Wine of the week: a trio of tremendous whites

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published 4 March 2022

2020 Tapanappa, Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills, South Australia

£36, reduced to £27 each for a case of six bottles, threshers.co.uk; £29.50, thechampagnecompany.com

I have a trio of tremendous whites from Tapanappa for you this week, all new vintage releases. In reverse order, starting with the grandest of the three: 2019 Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay (£32, in bond per bottle, Cellar Circle Exclusive, laywheeler.com; £40, thechampagnecompany.com). Only 2,700 bottles have been made and the UK received just 588, so get in quick. There is no doubt that this is one of the most extraordinary wines I have tasted from this legendary site.

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Next, 2020 Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard 1.5M Chardonnay (£35, thechampagnecompany.com) is made from a 2003 re-planting of Dijon clone chardonnay and it sits across the road from the original 1979 block. This is only the second time that this “close-planted” wine has made it to the UK, and I noted Chassagne-Montrachet-like presence here coupled with a very long finish. The oak is superb, and the depth of fruit, while prodigious, is not quite as lusty as that found in Tiers.

Finally, my featured wine. Only 525 dozen were made, and this is the most forward-drinking and invigorating chardonnay under this famous label. Well-balanced and not too exuberant nor expressive, the fruit is calm, layered, detailed and impressive. There are none of the exotic notes found in the other wines in this lithe beauty, making it a finely tuned and deliciously mesmerising creation.

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

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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.