James Halliday Wine Companion 2019 – August 2018 A warm and drier than average season has resulted in richer and more intense flavours of stone fruit, ginger flower and preserved lemon. More complexity and depth from winemaking inputs such as whole-bunch pressed and fermentation in French oak with lees stirring throughout a 9-month period. Yet this never feels besieged, as the natural acidity glides across the palate reining everything in. A pleasure to drink. 96 Points Toni Paterson MW, The Real Review – August 2018 An alluring, heady aroma of fresh cream, gentle ginger spice and lemon butter. The grapefruity palate is deliciously textured and long with an outstanding phenolic frame. A sophisticated, well-made wine that has presence, style and intensity. Highly recommended. Campbell Mattison – June 2018 Chardonnay from the Coal River Valley. Tolpuddle vineyard, planted in 1988. Great chardonnay. Fleshy with fruit, slung with acidity, flashed with flinty funk, and bitten by notes of grapefruit, wood spice and steel. Nashi pear and white peach flavours create the waves; spice and matchsticks add the glitter. It’s beautiful now, and it will take age in style. GOLD – 2018 International Wine Challenge 97 Points – 2017 James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge GOLD – 2017 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards Ray Jordan – March 2018 Another exceptional wine from this exceptional vineyard in the Coal River Valley of Tasmania. Beautiful aromatics of vanilla bean and white peach with a profound minerally lees influence. Nice savoury characters on the palate with a minerally edge carrying through to a long finish. Quite an edgy acidity and it will no doubt settle into a neat groove in a few more years. 95/100 Tony Love – March 2018 Tolpuddle 2016 Chardonnay is driven by its Coal River Valley source, which offers natural acidity with all the ultimate finesse that follows – whiffs of wheatgerm and sea shells, tastes of white crunchy nectarine, lemon and lime juice, and mouth-watering pithy texture to finish. Is that the vineyard alone or in concert with Tolpuddle winemakers Martin Shaw, Adam Wadewitz and team? Clearly it’s both elements, their understanding and interpretation of the site being critical in the final sculpting of one of the great Australian chardonnays.