Shaw and Smith, "M3" Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2023

The Chardonnay that restored Australia's reputation! 

Well, in our eyes at least. And now back in stock!

See, since the Bridget Jones-ification of Australian Chardonnay - inexpensive and heavily oak-flavoured - there was the ABC movement that seriously damaged sales of Australian Chardonnay (and with good reason). The wines were soupy, gloopy, sweet and unbalanced. Yuck. 

So when I tried this back in the late 2000s I was instantly uplifted by the quality, authenticity and balance, but also fascinated by the elegant presence of oak. This is an oaky Australian Chardonnay, but it's NOT like those from which we all turned! This is such a fine example of winemaking that its comparisons are international rather than regional; indeed, it competes (if that's what it does) at the very highest levels of quality.

Made from grapes grown in one of Australia's cooler climates, the Adelaide Hills zone, the 25-year-old vineyards are grown at 440-500 metres above sea-level and are now taken from the estate's very best plantings of Chardonnay. The original M3 was a single vineyard wine, but that vineyard was sold, which oddly has increased the quality of the wine as it is now a representation of the entire estate's top Chardonnay.

The wine is complex, fresh, vibrant and concentrated, with orchard fruits, tropical nuance and a beautiful tension held in place by the perfectly integrated French oak

It really is one of the best New World Chardonnays in production, which really makes it one of the best in the world. It's certainly a proper Allotment favourite, just saying.

This is the very smart, top-level white from one of Australia's most recognised wine families. In their new venture, the 6th generation of this family have made a scintillating, bright, structured Chardonnay that is utterly delicious, balanced, intense, complex and long.

This is an incredible achievement - a hugely impressive wine with layers of flavours from cashew nut to white peach, citrus notes to integrated and subtle toasted oak. It shows layers and layers of flavour within a crystalline body and a vibrant almost saline finish. It has nervy tension and delivers mineral acidity with its jaw-dropping, glass-refilling 12% alcohol.

Selected from old vines grown by the Burge family's long-term friends, the Potters, these grapes are aged in new and used oak barrels for 6 months with regular battonage to add structure and balance to the bright acidity in the high-altitude grapes. It combines to give a wine that has at least 5-8 years of ageing potential.

Named after their great-grandmother Ethel, the Patroness of the family and community who volunteered in seemingly every cause going and loudly made a virtue of it: a characteristic that the community-minded Burges have held onto ever since.

The Burge family have lived in the Corryton Park Homestead since their parents bought it in the 1990s, at which stage they registered the name as a company - just in case they had to use it - which is very handy: the Grant Burge winery and name and use of the name was sold to Accolade wines in 2015 and of course means that they're never, ever allowed to use the name in association with wine. However, because they registered this one earlier, they're out of the loop.

Plus, they sold the name: they held onto the winery itself in Illaparra, the Cellar-door (which is a term for a winery's own shop) in Tanunda, and possibly most importantly, the 300 hectares of vineyard across south Australia. These feed numerous other family projects, but it's the Corryton project that has the potential to best emulate the previous successes of the family history.

The lovely label depicts a Gryffin (or gryphon), of which two stone carvings sit on the gates of the estate. Legend has it that these fantastical beasts guarded gems and precious metals: the analogy for the winery, homestead and vineyard isn't lost on the family!