Back to All Events

The Great WA 2023 Vintage Chardonnay Evaluation

  • Lamont's Wine Store Cottesloe 12 Station Street Cottesloe, WA, 6011 Australia (map)

The First Serious Evaluation
of WA’s Wonderful 2023 Chardonnays

Margaret River ‘s 2023 Chardonnay Vintage appears to be outstanding.
Let’s open 16 of the finest that have been released so far.

“I spent all last week tasting 2016 Burgundies, but the more whites I tried, the more I lusted after the Western Australian alternatives…”
Jancis Robinson MW 2019

2023:
Vasse Felix Heytesbury | Cullen Kevin John | Pierro | Moss Wood | Howard Park Allingham
Deep Woods Reserve | Stella Bella Luminosa | Driftwood Single Site | L.A.S. Vino
Nocturne SV | Flametree SRS Cherubino | Pemberton | McHenry Hohnen Hazel’s
Singlefile Family Reserve | Fermoy Estate Reserve


Sunday February 2nd  

Lunch: 12-3pm, 16 Chardonnays & 4 Courses $250
Tasting: 4-6pm, 16 Chardonnays with Nibbles $145
Dinner: 6:30pm, 16 Chardonnays & 4 Courses $250

See the full critic reviews & points on the wines below the menu.


The Wine List & Menu

1st Course
Fraser Gallop Parterre 2023, Our Price $54
95 Points, James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge 2024
The nose is mineral-driven with aromas of lime zest, orange blossoms and flint. The medium-bodied palate has focused acidity and generous mouthfeel, giving notes of pink grapefruit, lemon blossoms and sea salt. Very focused and tightly wound with underlying power. Drink or hold. 
94 Points James Suckling (October 2024)

Singlefile Family Reserve 2023, Our Price $59
Thoroughly beautiful chardonnay from a Denmark vineyard planted in 1989. It was whole bunch pressed and fermented in a one third new and two thirds one year old French barriques. Partial malolactic fermentation with regular lees stirring over six months. On the nose grapefruit and zest lemon emerge. The palate has a fine minerality and delicate acid to sustain through to a long finish. Really impressive chardonnay.
96 Points Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com.au
Driftwood Single Site 2023, Our Price $57
Trophies – Best Chardonnay, Best White & Best WA Wine, Royal Perth Wine Show 2024
Okay, this stacks up as the best chardonnay yet from Driftwood. Displays the subtle understatement of the style and the site, but then you start to explore the complex aromas of cut lime, lemon, quince and richer crème brulee. The palate then kicks in with its embedded richness coming from regular lees stirring. A most impressive and exciting chardonnay development for Driftwood.
97 Points Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com

1st Course

2nd Course
Nocturne Single Vineyard 2023, Our Price $59
The 2023 Single Vineyard Chardonnay is from the Forrest vineyard in central Wilyabrup, to the north of Margaret River town. The 2023 season that birthed it was magnificent—the best this century for whites; the premium reds are yet to be released. Mild temperatures, a long, dry growing season meant there was little to no pressure in the vineyard. The fruit was in brilliant condition, and the wines show this. The 2023 Single Vineyard Chardonnay leads with elegantly managed reduction, showing curry leaf and brine, white flowers, flint and salted nuts, beeswax, sea spray and fresh pressed linen. This is a pleasure to smell and even better to taste. Ductile, resolved phenolics provide shape on the palate, while the toasty oak sits neatly folded into the fruit. What a wine. Yes. The best release under this label yet. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
97 Points Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate (November 2024)
Stella Bella Luminosa 2023, Our Price $89
A single vineyard Chardonnay of inimitable character, there is only one Luminosa. Each release is a masterclass in delivering a top tier Margaret River Chardonnay that is both sumptuous and bright with a real inner Chardonnay energy force. Complexity is immediately delivered via aromas rich in peach, melon, quince paste, apple, citrus and lively, fresh sea spray. The palate offers an all-embracing taste experience in layers of flavour, juicy, filigree-fine acidity, a lick of smart oak that seems naturally in tune. Enticing hints of zesty lemon skin to close. Lingers long with outstanding line and length.
96 Points Jeni Port, Winepilot (December 2024)
Fermoy Estate Reserve 2023, Our Price $71
Another wonderful example of the outstanding chardonnays coming off this established Margaret River vineyard. Follows a line of handpicking and whole bunch pressing with wild fermentation and nine months in oak. The primary fruit of grapefruit and cut lime with some light brioche reveal their subtle qualities on the nose. The palate has a steeling linear feel to it but that in many ways conceals its sustained power and intensity. A precise and focussed wine with so much potential.
97 Points Ray Jordan rayjordanwine.com
L.A.S Vino Wildberry Springs 2023, Our Price $79
Generous smoky/flinty reduction overlying ripe grapefruit aromas—a classic Gin Gin clone wine. Superb fruit: very regional and very Gin Gin. Powerful flavour teamed with refinement and penetrating length. A real finesse chardonnay and quite superb.
96 Points Huon Hooke, The Real Review (May 2024)

2nd Course

3rd Course
Deep Woods Reserve 2023, Our Price $77
Trophy – Best Chardonnay, Royal Hobart Wine Show 2024
Trophy – Best Chardonnay, Royal Queensland Wine Award 2024
Trophy – Best White Wine of the Show, Royal Queensland Wine Award 2024
Trophy - Wine of Provenance Margaret River Wine Show, 2024
Trophy – Best WA Chardonnay Melbourne 2024
Gold - Melbourne 2024
Gold - Margaret River 2024
Gold – Sydney 2024

Moss Wood 2023, Our Price $97
Amazing to think that Moss Wood’s oldest Chardonnay vines are now 48 years of age. Fermentation for this cracking Chardonnay was finished in 228-litre French oak barriques. The wine was then blended in tank and returned to barrel, with 49% new, for the next year and a half. The colour here is a deep but attractive lemon gold. This is a superb Margaret River Chardonnay. Complexity is already evident, as are notes of stone fruits, cashews, oatmeal, ginger, lemongrass, peaches and immaculate oak handling. The supple, creamy, cushiony texture is an absolute highlight. A wine of fine balance and serious length, this has at least a decade of providing pleasure ahead of it. A stunner.
96 Points Ken Gargett, Winepilot (January 2025)
McHenry Hohnen Hazel’s Vineyard 2023, Our Price $89
The vineyard stamps its character on this from the get-go. Notes of lemon scents with lightly roasted cashew and faint struck match. The palate is intense and with a fine acidity and minerally character defining it through its linear range. Beautifully integrated and tightly coiled before releasing through to a sustained finish. A wine that will really show its true worth in another few years.
98 Points Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com
Flametree SRS Wallcliffe 2023, Our Price $85
This chardonnay comes from the Wallcliffe area within Margaret River. The fruit from this season was excellent, but then Cliff Royle has harnessed it perfectly creating a wine of tremendous power, yet at the same time subtlety and elegance. Slight struck match flinty characters on the nose merge with deeper notes of lemon curd and quince with a slightly oyster shell finish. As good as anything Flametree have made.
98 Points Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com

3rd Course 

4th Course
Cherubino Pemberton 2023, Our Price $89
Okay, I’ve tasted a few of these and I reckon this is the best. Great vintage, yes, but then the subtle winemaking has brought it to a new dimension. While bunch pressing and naturally fermented in new and used puncheons, which just takes the edge off the oak. The power of the Gingin clone is evident immediately. Lemon, quince and brioche notes work through while the palate is a thrilling journey to a very long finish. Great wine.
98 Points, Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com
Pierro 2023, Our Price $108
White Wine of the Year, Ray Jordan WA Wine Review 2025
This will sit alongside anything Peterkin has made in more than four decades as one of the finest winemakers in the region. It is a cracking good wine delivered with precision and power with a degree of delicacy and finesse that makes it so appealing. Incredible intensity on the nose with aromas of white peach and grapefruit with a little muted butterscotch in the background. The palate is powerful and drives with urgency through to a remarkably long finish. The oak is neatly interlaced, and the fresh acidity adds another dimension with its savoury chalky character.
98 Points Ray Jordan, rayjordanwine.com
Howard Park Allingham 2023, Our Price $89
There’s been a real shift in the Howard Park wines since chief winemaker Nic Bowen joined in ’21 and now with ‘his’ vintages coming to fruition, it’s wonderful to witness. This is excellent. It’s flinty and a little funky thanks to the whisper of sulphides yet lots of delicious citrus, spice and savoury oak, the latter superbly integrated. Everything comes together brilliantly all tied with a neat bow of acidity leading to a persistent finish.
96 Points Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion (May 2024)
Vasse Felix Heytesbury 2023, Our Price $115
Fine, fragrant and pithy aromas of grapefruit, struck match, melon skin, jasmine, just-ripe white peach, wet slate and green mango. Textured, focussed and layered, with concentration, purity and precision. Stone fruit, citrus, nutty oak, nougat and slatey, mineral acidity are all driving the palate. There’s texture, length and absolute class here 
96 Points Aaron Brasher, The Real Review (December 2024)
 Cullen Kevin John 2023, Our Price $178
From the excellent 2023 vintage in Margaret River, … and what a wine. Never less than thrilling these days, … Balance, elegance and complexity, … the focus here is superb, through to an impressively long finish. …
98 Points, Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot (April 2024)

4th Course


Wine Critic Points & Reviews


Previous
Previous
26 January

Burgundian Mini Series
#6: Domaine Rapet Pere et Fils

Next
Next
9 February

Legend of the Clare Valley: Wendouree Tasting & Lunch