Shaw and Smith Lenswood Chardonnay 2021

Fermented wild in new and used 500L puncheons; matured for 10 months with the occasional stir. Among the country's varietal exemplars. Transparent and tensile with an additional nuance of flavour, vibrato and mineral cohesion etched into the firmament of complexity each year. White peach, toasted hazelnut, jasmine and nougatine teem long. The oak, nestled beautifully, serves as a framing backdrop rather than the centrepiece. A wine of precision, intense flavours and immense class.

Such a deep nose, with a wide spectrum of candied citrus, fresh butter and stunning, leesy complexity. Great concentration and restrained richness, with wonderful mineral freshness give this near-perfect balance.

The Lenswood vineyard (in Lenswood, in the Adelaide Hills) is big, and when I went there at the end of June 2022, it was lush with shin-height green grass, there were kangaroos hoping around the place (not a problem at this time of year), and the place generally felt like the picture of health. It's an important picture to paint, because it helps to understand the sophisticated, streamlined 2020 Lenswood Vineyard Chardonnay that is in front of me. The vineyard is at an altitude of around 500 meters (1,640 feet) above sea level and was planted in 2001. The viticulture team is doing their bit to increase vine density via layering, which was fascinating to witness. The clones that went into this wine were 95 and 76. It has notes of white tea, apple skins, chalk, preserved lemon, a hint of curd and layers of brine. Very smart.