The 2023 Granite Belt wines I’ve tried so far have been nicely ripe and this Chardonnay at 13.2% a/v continues that trend. So vintage 2023 is looking very good, I can make a better call after trying more 2023’s but I am quite confident at this stage that the region had an extremely good vintage, storms and hail aside.
Nicely coloured with consistent deep off-bronze hues in the glass, the bouquet is quite powerful and immediately presents ripe stone fruits cradled in some vanilla oak. The fragrances are unmistakably wooded Chardonnay, very ripe yellow flesh peaches with both stone and pith waft in persuasive surges, the oak in this young just released wine undulates with the fruit but the fruit wins.
The palate is a textural joy washing over your taste buds and depositing emphatic Granite Belt minerals in a reluctant protracted finish that prepares and entices you for round two. There is an exciting slight sourness to the fruit, the peaches are ripe and powerful but their expression is perfectly subdued by their symbiosis with the oak – this is an expertly judged relationship. There is cream and velvet here flowing through a delightfully ripe stone fruit and lesser citrus orchard, the peaches are massaged by a little apricot flesh and grapefruit and there is a little lemony aspect to the refreshing acidity. I don’t have figures on the residual sugar but the wine is nicely dry, enticing and exciting some palatal punch.
Ray showed me this wine at the cellar door just prior to release and he was very excited about it. I can only concur – great job here Ray! So now there are in quick succession, two excellent Granite Belt 2023 Chardys and the few 2023 reds I have tried were very good wines, so far 2023 is all top shelf.
Tasted: Friday 9th August, 2024 without food and then with over several hours.
Alcohol: 13.2%
Closure: Screwcap
Price: $40
Suggested Drinking Window: 2024 – 2034+
Winemaker: Ray Costanzo
Fruit Source: Estate
Oak: Combination new and 3 year old French barriques
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