Highgate Chardonnay 2019 New South Wales Orange

Because of the small crop, 2020 Tiers Chardonnay is exquisitely concentrated.

Pale green/lemon in colour, the aroma is of nectarine, green fig and the bouquet is of subtle yeast and faint oak spice.

Absolutely typical of Tiers, the wine has a significant texture.

The aromas and flavours are tightly wound in this young Chardonnay and it will take some time to fully open up.

The bright finishing acid and slight grape fruit bitterness lend a suitable end to the sweet fruit core of the wine.

2019 Tapanappa Tiers Chardonnay is “a very ageworthy expression of this unique Australian terroir”.

The Tiers Vineyard is in the second coolest and the wettest location in South Australia, the Piccadilly Valley.

It is absolutely suited to Chardonnay being an almost perfect homo-clime of Burgundy and especially mirrors the southern end of the Cotes de Beaune where the great Montrachets are grown.

The soil is unique in the Adelaide Hills being based on the 1.6 billion years old Calcsilicate geological stratum lifted into place by a fault at the edge of the Tiers Vineyard that places it next to the 500 million year old geological strata that prevail in the rest of the Piccadilly Valley.

The Tiers Vineyard tilts gently to the north and east in a sheltered valley that takes best advantage of the autumn sun in the northern sky to extract the last rays of ripening energy at the cool end of the harvest. It has been planted on an intensive vine regime and managed fastidiously by hand on a vine-by-vine basis. The vines are now over 30 years old and in perfect balance with their environment at the low crop level of 6 tonnes/hectare.