Moet & Chandon originally acquired the Green Point property with the intention of establishing a prestigious Australian label. Set in the verdant hills of Victoria's beautiful Yarra Valley, Domain Chandon continue to over deliver, completely dedicated to the production of the finest quality, cool climate wines. The excellence of their renowned sparkling is due in no small part to the quality of the estate's Yarra Valley Chardonnay. A regimen of extravagant Burgundian techniques achieve an immensely satisfying, mouth filling wine.

Dog Point combines the considerable experiences of Ivan and Margaret Sutherland with James and Wendy Healy, fully focused on crafting distinctive and expressive new world wines. The Grand Cru of Marlborough Chardonnay, seamlessly melded with layers of gunflint, toasty oak and nutty detail, infused with luxurious oxidative complexities. More in the style of a good Chablis than anything Marlborough, generous, delicious, powerful yet refined.

Diamond Valley have long been called upon for the quality of their Chardonnay, truly one of Victoria's quiet achievers with a succession of memorable vintages which are quite out of proportion to it's tiny size. Devotees of fine Yarra Valley Chardonnay will find Blue Label fully engrossing for it's complex yet seamless integration, enthusiasts of approachable and engaging white wines will be ingratiated by Diamond Valley's reliance on more fruit and less oak.

Devil's Lair is a beautifully maintained vineyard which has established an enviable reputation of producing the finest Chardonnay every year. Climate and geology combine to create a unique terroir for a vibrant rendering of Margaret River. An intense expression of Chardonnay, very much in the Devil's Lair style, a subtle yet textural wine that offers a complexity of flavour which evolves and develops in the glass, without any single element dominating.

Made from the finest Chardonnay grapes in all Margaret River, only ever crafted in the most outstanding vintage years. Fruit is all hand picked and whole bunch pressed into a luxurious selection of one year old French oak barriques for a long, cool ferment and a year's stirring battonage on fine sedimentary lees. A powerful, single vineyard vintage of grand opulence, solid structure and exquisite balance, Devils Lair 9th Chamber Chardonnay claimed Wine of the Year in The West Australian Wine Guide.

Domaine Isabelle et Denis Pommier is located at Poinchy near Chablis, within the very heart of a vineyard that produces some of the best white wines in the world, known for their minerality, elegance and finesse. Pommier's splendid efforts have received much acclaim from the international wine press and are featured on winelists at many of the best restaurants in France. Petit Chablis is a clean and pure, fleshy palated sibling to the bigger efforts of Chablis, most appreciated for it's freshness and approachability, ideally to be enjoyed young and crisp.

Pinot Noir is selectively hand picked off some marvelous old vines, now into their fourth decade. Just over half of the fruit is assembled from the closely cossetted vines of D Block, a precious parcel that's specifically husbanded for making Rosé. Grapes are destemmed into open top fermenters, a third of the fruit is included as whole bunches. A wild indigenous yeast vinification over the course of a fortnight brings the ferments to complete dryness, for an adults only style. A small amount of blush hued saignée is added to round out the bouquet and infuse the rakish pink hue.

As the substantial inventory of De Bortoli estate and private grower vineyards continue to mature and to evolve their own individual character, many of these special sites, twenty years of age and older, are yielding unique and distinctive wines which articulate the expression of vineyard and terroir. Choice harvests which can demonstrate the affinity to be assembled into a Villages style of Yarra Valley wine, are co-vinified into a vital, unoaked Chardonnay of wild yeast battonage complexity and barrel ferment richness.

Fruit from the superlative Dixons Creek property continues to be the focus for tremendous single vineyard efforts by De Bortoli. There is a common thread in the detail and texture of wine from these older sites, as influenced by the vagaries of growing season and clime. Some splendid blocks of vine were established decades ago, today they yield the finest harvests in Yarra Valley. Fashioned from the pick of fruit on Section A5 at Dixons Creek, an extraordinary Chardonnay of prominent peach, melon and fig characters, a wine of focus, power and restraint.

Lusatia Park is one of the most distinguished vineyards in Yarra Valley, choice clones of closely spaced vines were planted to the north facing Block A in 1995, they yield a spectacular harvest of intense, finely structured Chardonnay with each vintage. Fruit is hand sorted and whole bunch pressed, racked to barrel for a wild yeast ferment and completion of malolactic, followed by a course of intermittent lees stirring until the spring. A minerally, highly nuanced style of Chardonnay, creamy textured with a gentle acidity, mouthfilling and briny in the old world way, delicious.

De Bortoli are all about nurturing the endowments of the land to be enthused by the bequest of season, the personality of good wine is indeed defined by the disposition of nature. An exemplary effort in Yarra Valley Chardonnay, fashioned to articulate a cornucopia of complex fruit characters over rich barrel ferment extracts, seasoned by nutty, vanilla cashew notes. The palate is superbly textured and manifestly elegant, captivating and compelling, before a long, exquisitely poised finish that's just gorgeous.

Single vineyard Chardonnay from vines planted to the Meadowbank property, bounded by the fast flowing, pristine waters of Derwent River. Gerald and Sue Ellis established their first plantings on the rugged terrains of Meadowbank in 1974, the vineyard now holds a special place in the history of Tasmanian viticulture. Stephen Hickinbotham was the first to recognise potential of the site, Dawson & James Chardonnay vines were sown in 1989 and vine age now plays an important part in the flavour development and ultimate balance of the precious fruit.

Hand picked Chardonnay from the steep, free draining soils of Cave Block on Pipers River. Grapes are whole bunch pressed into a selection of seasoned and new French oak barriques, wild indigenous ferments, light lees contact and partial malolactic achieve a deeply textural wine of lemon curd and preserved citrus complexity. Cashews and grain, a finely elegant acid palate define Cave Block, mealyness and vibrant citrus fruit. The finish is clean and long, lingering on languid notes of nectarine skins, roasted kernel and rye.

This is the way it's done on Les grands vignobles de France, whole bunches, extravagant new oak ferments and an extended term of age. Quality of fruit however remains cardinal, terroir and the surrounding elements play the main role, a fortuitous confluence of the Macedon Ranges auspicious soils and propitious climes. Elegant, powerful, a golden delicious Burgundesque style, with the structure to expand and evolve, its vivid muscularity defines Curly Flat as the Chardonnay to match veal escalopes or succulent crackling pork.

Kevin John Cullen was a passionate believer in the quality of Margaret River wines and particularly for the potential to achieve one of the world's great Chardonnay growing regions. He established the International Chardonnay Tasting, now in its third decade, to enable the efforts of Margaret River to be compared alongside the best vintages from around the world. Kevin John anticipated that the lessons learned from these comparisons would inspire his winemaking team to optimise the quality of Chardonnay grapes grown to the Cullen estate vineyards.

Soave by name and suave by nature, the rejuvenating white wines from this tiny commune in the Veneto, are enjoyed around the globe for their remarkable approachability and stylish old world charm. Corte Giara is a cooperative of the best growers, they assemble their harvests every vintage to create a Denominazione di Origine Controllata, a predominantly Garganega wine in the tradition of the region, vinified alongside a component of locally grown Chardonnay. The perfect aperitif wine, a match to Al fresco and creamy risottos.

Stimulated by the refreshing maritime winds of Port Phillip Bay, the propitious vines at Cornelius Vineyard yield a precious harvest of the most splendid Chardonnay with every vintage. Crushed into a costly selection of the finest French oak for a luxurious course of barrel ferments, Victoria's answer to Chablis, a big boned Chardonnay style of macadamia, match stick and mineral. Solidly structured and intense, a seamless integration of white peach, calvados and custard cream, fruit, acid and oak in magnificent balance, a long and lingering palate of multi dimensional richness.

The pinnacle of cool climate Chardonnay viticulture, an intensely flavoured wine in full bloom, made from a very strict selection of the finest parcels, assembled around a backbone of the highly prestigious, low yielding House Block. Produced only in years where the quality is deemed to be exceptional, Coldstream Reserve displays attractive cool climate characters of stonefruit and citrus. Oak plays an important role, but does not dominate. Secondary characters of barrel ferments and soil grape solids impart minerality, adding further layers of complexity.

With well in excess of a hundred hectares under vine, completely estate owned and operated, Coldstream Hills can exercise their options to source grapes from a litany of Upper Yarra as well as Lower Yarra Valley vineyards, ensuring that only the best quality fruit is included into their profound Chardonnays. In lesser years, Coldstream does not release a Reserve, directing all their finest parcels into this very wine. The classically cool climate style of Chardonnay, with excellent intensity of fruit, rejuvenating acids and tightly reined in, well controlled oak.

Crafted to a combination of traditional, minimalist and exacting winemaking techniques by one of New Zealand's most prominent labels, Cloudy Bay is an engaging, mouthfilling and textural Marlborough Chardonnay. Layered with a generosity of citrus and stonefruit flavours, the fruit is enhanced by an attractive nuttiness and subtle oak influence. Cloudy Bay is delicious in its youth, generous with piquant grapefruit complexity, enhanced by a luxurious biscuit/ mineral richness.

A scrupulous cull of the most exquisite parcels, a regimen of traditional burgundian methods and extended term in an extravagant selection of the finest French oak. Clarence House established superior clones Chardonnay to an exquisite terroir of undulating northeast slopes, awakened by the warmth of early morning sunlight, sheltered from the harsh impact of late afternoon heat. The Chardonnay grown here speaks of propitious Jurassic soils and invigorating maritime winds, infused by the abundance of eucalypt and verdant green, articulate of its complex mineral provenance, chiselled and refined.

Chardonnay performs so well at Clarence House, that precious blocks were set aside for a second planting of the courtly varietal. The brisk maritime climes of Hobart encourage a savoury, saline style of Chardonnay, weighty with all the ripe orchard fruit flavours yet awash with the scents of the sea, oyster shell, tradewind and fragrant old spice. Treated to a traditional burgundesque style of ferments and élevage, Clarence House frame their Chardonnay with just the right amount of fine French oak, made for matching alongside fruits de mer, frogs au feuilleté and all fancy French fare.

Biological farming is a passion at Clairault, incorporating a mix of organic and conventional farming techniques which place a strong emphasis on soil biology. The achievement is high quality Chardonnay, such low intervention techniques ensure that only the healthiest grapes are grown, achieving optimum flavour for in the final wine. Fruit is picked early morning and pressed, a portion as bunches, oak fermented in a high proportion of French barriques, partial malolactic and nine months maturation, stirred and topped fortnightly before the final assemblage.

Clairault was the sixth Margaret River estate to plant vines, it remains one of the oldest privately owned operations within the premier Wilyabrup appellation. The pristine, undulating property, situated less than four kilometres inland from Cape Clairault peninsula and 120 meters above sea level, is endowed with bountiful creeks, natural springs and some of the oldest native forests in the southwest. The Clairault team take great care of local flora and fauna, mother nature reciprocates, in the form of intensely flavoured Chardonnay with refined balance and exquisite style.

The chilly early mists, exhilerating maritime breezes and undulating terroirs of Mornington are heaven sent for the realization of Burgundy styled Chardonnay wines. Half the plantings at Hillcrest Road are Chardonnay, one and a half acres of a single clone, originally intended for an elite sparkling Cuvee. Such is the quality of fruit, its remarkable concentration of flavour and flawless acidity, choice parcels are set aside for a pure varietal wine. Structured, seamless and intense, single vineyard block Mornington Chardonnay of the highest order.

Chard Farm was established in 1987 by Motueka brothers Rob and Greg Hay. They were the first to come into the area with the intention of setting up a commercial vineyard, settling on Chard Farm after an exhaustive search for a site which best emulated the cool continental climate and soils of some of the greatest wine producing areas of the world, most notably Burgundy and Alsace. The investigation lead to Central Otago, the long term goal being to craft the finest classic cool climate wines in a structured and generously proportioned old world style.