2023 Reserve Chardonnay

"Of the 24 vintages I have done in Australia, the 2023 vintage stands tall as likely my favourite, and what I see as the best vintage I have experienced to date. 2023 also marks the 11th release of this modern style of our Reserve Chardonnay, which is pretty cool. 2023 was an effortless vintage in Margaret River – not too hot, not too cold, everything was just right, and our Reserve Chardonnay blocks really excelled. This wine has a beautiful purity and lift with sea breeze and funk on the nose, and it's got the most crystalline, tense, long palate you've ever seen. The Reserve Chardonnay wines are really quite balanced in their youth, but they will reward ageing like you would not believe. I'm so excited about this release and I'll be getting lots and lots for my cellar – if it doesn't sell out first! A Chardonnay for the ages and, like the vintage my favourite Deep Woods Estate Reserve Chardonnay, ever."

Chief Winemaker Julian Langworthy

Colour

Pale straw with cream/pearl hue.

Aroma

An array of complex white florals leads this wine into aromas of scratched citrus, grilled lime and white peach. Beneath the purest of fruit, the wine holds underlying cashew paste, nori and cardamom notes that merge with fennel seed, baked pastry and lemon rind.

Palate

The palate has brilliant power and tension that is balanced by the sleekest core of fruit, where the wines pedigree rings true.

Incredibly long and saline this wine has an effortless journey across the palate. Flavours of white stone fruit, lemon curd and bitter lime are captured by cheese cloth like textures that evolved from whole bunch pressing and an extended time on lees.

Cellaring

Optimum drinking within three to ten years.

Vintage

2023 saw a mild spring with adequate soil moisture, resulting in a slightly later season. A moderate summer led to ideal ripening conditions with little pressure in the vineyard and a lack of any major rain events during the ripening season. Consistently warm days and cool evenings made for great retention of acid within the grapes, whilst achieving optimal fruit expression.

Winemaking

This assemblage of this wine is largely sourced from two premium central Wilyabrup vineyards, with additional fruit from a pristine site in Karridale. 100% Gin Gin clone.

The fruit was hand-picked and then chilled to maintain pristine condition. A minimalist approach in the winery included whole bunch pressing, wild fermentation and sparing lees stirring in a mixture of new and seasoned French oak. The individual parcels were kept separate and aged on lees for nine months until the final wine was blended for bottling.

Region

Margaret River

Variety

Chardonnay 

Clone

Gin Gin

Analysis

• Alcohol: 13.0%
• pH: 3.41
• TA: 7.80 g/L
  

Seared scallops with a lemon pepper butter topped with parsley.

Royal Melbourne Wine Awards 2024

Best Western Australian Chardonnay

Royal Queenland Wine Awards 2024

The Fleming Trophy for Best Chardonnay of Show
Best White Table Wine of Show

Margaret River Wine Show 2024

Wine of Provenance - 2023, 2017 & 2014

Sydney Royal Wine Show 2024

Royal Hobart Wine Show 2024

James Halliday Australian Chardonnay & Cabernet Sauvignon Challenge 2024

Ray Jordan Wine Guide 2024

Let’s cut to the chase. The finest Deep Woods Chardonnay yet. It has it all. Great fruit has been harnessed with whole bunch pressing and fermentation in new and seasoned French oak. Further lees stirring has built in texture, contributing to a thoroughly beautiful, refined mouth feel. Opens with a stone fruit and savoury light lemon curd aromas. Peels off into a palate that reveals more of a struck match and cracked seashell minerality complementing the outstanding fruit concentration. Super wine.

98

James Suckling 2024

The nose is very flashy and mineral-driven with citrus notes of lime zest, gunsmoke and grapefruit rind. The medium-bodied palate has high-tension acidity with an underlying power, showing notes of lemon peel, shortbread and sea salt. A very classy, tightly wound chardonnay that will unravel for years to come. Exceptional.

97

Erin Larkin, Robert Parker Wine Advocate, November 2024

I recently tasted these 2023 Chardonnay wines from Deep Woods off the grid—that is to say that no tasting notes were taken, but the impressions were powerful. The 2023 season was one of the most magnificent vintages in Western Australia for its long, mild and dry outlay of growing days. There was some rain at the very end of the harvest period, which did impact some later-ripening reds, but given the year and how it all played out, this was managed well by most. The 2023 Reserve Chardonnay is a true reflection of the year that birthed it; it is elegant, long, coiled and fine, with a palate of concentrated fruit. Most importantly to us, the drinkers, the wine has presence and impact. The acidity is saturating, glassy and crystalline, the fruit is ripe, powerful and restrained, and the phenolic structure that holds it together does so in a pliable, ductile fashion. This is an excellent wine and a wine that I want to drink.

96

Barry Weinman, September 2024

This has everything turned up a notch. More depth of fruit, more complexity from the winemaking and more impact from the texturing oak. Here, the citrus has been replaced with the more typical tropical/pineapple acidity. Lees and barrel work add greatly, with minerality and struck match notes really adding to the mix. And there is tremendous length and persistence of flavours. The fruit is primarily from Wilyabrup and spent time in 35% new oak (a combination of barriques, hogs heads and puncheons). A superb wine that deserves to be considered amongst the region’s finest.

96  

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, August 2024

Lime, pink grapefruit, quite a lot of cashew, cinnamon pastry, some cut fennel, a wisp of flinty and smoky things. It has intensity and ripe grapefruity acid cut, something more saline and umami here too, bright and chalky in texture, with lime rind and grip on a finish of excellent length. It has zing and energy, though it really needs a few years in bottle to cool its boots and settle into its groove. 

Simon Hughes, Max Crus, September 2024

Here, 'Single Vineyard' is trumped by the 'Reserve' range and the extra $30 buys a bit more oak and a bit more other stuff too. It’s a very busy Chardonnay so save it for when you have time to savour it.

Gabrielle Poy, The Real Review 2024

Smoky notes mix with green tea, crushed rocks and spiced nectarines. There's a lovely flow to the palate with flavours of lemon curd, brioche and subtle herbal threads emerging. Acidity brings freshness while the fruit shows lovely clarity and detail. It's a worked style yet the fruit is never smothered and remains the star of the show. It's drinking very nicely now.