Victoria Park is a South Australian label, and this is Chardonnay from the broad warm-country belt that runs through the state's wine districts. The 2021 vintage is dry, medium-bodied, and sits at 13% alcohol, with the grape's own stone fruit and melon at the front and a creamy weight behind it that comes from time in oak.
- Chardonnay, the white grape of Burgundy, grown here in South Australia.
- 2021, a vintage that gave Chardonnay ripeness without heaviness.
- Dry, medium body, medium acidity, low tannin.
- Stone fruit, melon, citrus, vanilla oak on the palate.
- 13% alcohol, 750ml bottle.
How it is made
Chardonnay is a quiet grape. Grown without much interference it tastes of apples and citrus, and it takes on weight and colour from the vessel it matures in. South Australian producers work with warm days and cool nights, which ripens the fruit fully while holding on to acidity. Fermentation and maturation in oak is what builds the creamy texture and the vanilla note that separate this style from an unoaked Chardonnay.
How it tastes
White peaches and honeydew lead, with citrus cutting through the middle. The oak shows as vanilla and a soft spice, closer to nutmeg than to toast, and it sits behind the fruit rather than over it. Medium acidity keeps the creamy texture from turning flabby. The finish is dry and clean.
Where it comes from
South Australia is the country's workhorse wine state, covering everything from the cool Adelaide Hills to the hot Riverland. Chardonnay is planted across all of it, and the grape adapts: leaner and more mineral in the hills, rounder and more generous on the warmer flats. The state's scale is why Australian Chardonnay became a household wine in the 1980s and 1990s, and why it is still the country's most planted white grape.
Good to know
Chardonnay is a crossing of Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc, an obscure grape that is barely grown anywhere today. Almost every Chardonnay on earth descends from that one crossing, which happened centuries ago in eastern France.
