Sexton

This single vineyard beauty, from a restrained and acid-driven Chardonnay vintage in the Yarra Valley, leads with reductive flint and nut characters. They're woven in with more delicate aromas like stone fruit, waxy lemon, white spice, orchard blossoms and wet stones. Toasty oak is there too, but it's well tucked. The mouthfeel is beautifully balanced, with prickly, citrusy acidity and supportive oak. Precise yet still characterful, this is an excellent, food friendly example of modern Aussie Chard. Drink now–2032.

I like how Australian chardonnays sneak up on you with an inviting, nutty, citrus that mixes effortlessly with a creamy undercoating and plenty of lees to feed its complexity from front to back. It is rich in a Grand Cru way but not overpowering. This is a terrific discovery for the Vancouver market. I hope some of this gets distributed out to retailers so all can enjoy it. It joins a short but impressive list of Down Under chardonnays that are lighting up the category. The 30 hectare Sexton Vineyard, planted in 1997, is located on the steep, north-facing slopes of the Warramate Ranges. The topsoil is thin, and vines sit on shallow, gravelly loams over a rocky clay base. Vigour and bunch yields are naturally low.