Ravensworth Neighbourly Chardonnay

 Ravensworth seems to be a winery which goes from strength to strength. It certainly escaped the shadow of Clonakilla by now with its interesting and wide ranging wine making. The small batch 2021 Ravensworth  Neighbourly Chardonnay is curiously named, given the wine is a blend of Margaret River and Tumbarumba fruit. 

This wine has quite a golden colour for such a young wine. On the palate, the wine is more understated with an interesting and quite complex mix of flavours; lemon, grapefruit, apricot, lychee, even ginger. I thought this was quite an expensive Burgundy, yet at $25/bottle, this must be the bargain of the year. I recommend it highly.

Score: 92/+++

Eden Road Tumbarumba Chardonnay

Chardonnay was the big winner in my recent poll, but not everybody likes Chardonnay. In fact, some people won't touch it. There are mainly two reasons for it. If you do not know the wine, it may be difficult to predict what you are going to get. For example, in Australia, the fruit expression can go from citrus to stone fruit to tropical fruit characteristics. Oak treatment can also vary dramatically. Which brings me to the second reason. Chardonnay is often manipulated in the winery, because in and of itself the grapes may not have a lot of character. And this takes us to today's wine, the 2013 Eden Road Tumbarumba Chardonnay.

This is Eden Road's premium Chardonnay. The wine has a very clean colour. There is not much happening on the nose, and this continues on the palate. There simply is not much fruit flavour. There is not much minerality either. This is quite a steely wine, well made, and the emphasis is on the balanced texture. But is this enough?

Score: 91/0

The Long Road/Eden Road Wines

I was interested in these wines, as they have been written up so much since the 2008 Shiraz won the Jimmy Watson Trophy last year. The wines are cool climate wines from Tumbarumba, Hilltops and Canberra. They won other awards as well. I tasted six of their current wines.

The 2009 Long Road Riesling and Long Road Sauvignon Blanc come from Canberra. The Riesling is quite light, with lime and floral flavours and a slightly earthy finish. The Sauvignon Blanc is a bit fruity, tasting of citrus and not very pungent. In fact, it tasted quite like a Semillon. Both wines have good structure, but simply not enough expression.

Score: 86/0

The 2008 Eden Road Chardonnay from Tumbarumba was probably the disappointment of this line-up. It was very lean, a bit floral as well, and green on the finish. There simply is not enough fruit to work with. Cool climate is fine, as long as the fruit gets ripe.

Score: 85/--

In contrast, the 2008 Eden Road Pinot Noir was excellent. This is a serious wine, from 16 year old vines, with quite expressive, savoury flavours. There is smoked meat on the palate as well (no, it is not bushfire). The wine has a clean, yet complex finish with well blended in tannins.

Score: 92/+

The 2008 Long Road Barbera/Nebbiolo from Hilltops is a strange wine. It is quite a forward wine, with Barbera sweetness, yet this does not work with the tannins of Nebbiolo. This wine style will need to evolve into something more serious or a lower percentage of Nebbiolo.

Score: 89/-

The 2008 Long Road Shiraz, the Jimmy Watson winner, has very appealing red and black cherry flavours. It is an opulent wine, with a fair bit of spice, as you would expect, and a good tannin structure. The wine is elegant and will benefit from 3 to 5 years cellaring. This is a good example of Hilltops Shiraz, not dissimilar to the Collector from the Canberra district, which also won a lot of accolades.

Score: 94/+

Overall, the reds impressed more than the whites. The winemaking is very good, although the winemaker is only 32 years old. The issue is fruit quality. The white wines did not quite measure up in this area, but the reds were very interesting.