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.

Cullen are driven by a passion for purity of fruit and perfect balance in the finished wine. Grapes are picked by hand off vines grown to a strict environmentally friendly philosophy. All wines produced at Cullen are certified as biodynamic, carbon neutral and naturally powered. Cullen vary the ratio of Sauvignon Blanc to Semillon with each vintage according to how the varietals perform. Grapes are individually sorted and fermented to indigenous yeasts, with no acid additions and limited fining, permitting the expression of terroir to have a stronger voice in the glass.

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.

Fifty kilometres inland from the Victorian coast, halfway between Warnambool and Coonawarra, an unusally complex mix of friable, basalt loams and permeable clays, overlaying the limestones of an ancient seabed, form a terroir that's opportune for viticulture and idyllic for Riesling. Vines were planted at Crawford River in 1975 in the midst of a large cattle station, established by John Thomson's great grandfather in 1884. The young vines moniker is completely relative, as the most recent plantings at Crawford River are in excess of fourteen years.

Outstanding Langtons Classification. Established 1975, Crawford River is one of the most distinguished vineyards in Victoria, arguably the finest Riesling site on the Australian mainland. The pick of crop is set aside in the most exceptional vintage years for a limited release Reserve bottling, held back under the estate cellars for extended bottle development. Its marked elegance, seamless structure and captivating fruit, articulates the virtues of a superior terroir, as influenced by the largesse of an immaculate vintage.

Outstanding Langtons Classification. The Crawford River vineyard wineworks are in the tiny but superlative Henty region, half way between Portland and Hamilton. This elegant and tightly structured Victorian Riesling wine must be experienced to be believed, it exhibits the intense, complex fruit characters and natural acidity of an elite vineyard terroir. A soft and textured palate of great purity and elegance is underpinned by stoney, Chablis like, chalky minerality, derived from the ancient seabeds in which the vines have extended their parched roots.

The mineral rich basalt loams, permeable clays and underlying limestones at Crawford River are a rare confluence of terroirs which yield an amazing quality of Riesling. The Thomson family had been intimately familiar with the property for a century, eventually turning parts of their grazing enterprise over to viticulture after neighbour Karl Seppelt established one of Victoria's most felicitous new vineyards in the 1960s. Henty offers the exquisite regal charm of the world's great Riesling appellations, the richness of Riquewihr, elegance of Eden and comfort of Clare.

The divine mesoclimes at Crawford River lend themselves to a variety of white wine styles to rival the most auspicious Riesling growing appellations in the world. A blight of botrytis cinerea following the wetness of vintage 2011, inspired the team to fashion a bone dry genre of Riesling, from parcels of grapes affected by the illustrious Noble Rot. A delightful accord of winsome floral notes and parched mineral savouryness, in a contention of characters that's so much greater than the sum of parts.

Exactingly fashioned from parcels of Semillon grapes, hand picked off dry grown vines, an exquisitely fragrant wine with a serious weight of palate, deliciously reflecting the cooler, balmy maritime breezes which rejuvenate the vineyard. The quality of fruit at Crawford River is the product of a painstaking approach to viticulture and careful management of crop levels throughout the growing season. The concentration of flavours and finely attenuated acidity offer great opportunty for growers with the nerve to tough out the extended vintages at Henty.

Scotchmans Hill enjoy a long established repute for the most satisfying Victorian Sauvignon Blanc, their expertise with the varietal has delivered an unbroken run of salubrious editions which have become a staple of the Australian wine list. Sauvignon Blanc was a natural choice for the Bellarine Peninsula, the team have since developed an intimate knowledge of the soils and microclimates most suitable for producing the very best. Cornelius is the estate flagship, the defining style in maritime influenced, cool climate Victorian Sauvignon Blanc.

Scotchmans Hill reserve the pick of their parcels for Cornelius, a flagship range representing the most elite blocks within the expansive catalog of estate vineyards. There's a single site of Pinot Gris that outperforms with each vintage. Picked off rows of closely husbanded vines, artisanally handled throughout the vinification, barrel fermented and treated to battonage on sedimentery lees for opulence. Bursting with nutty creamyness, bakers spice, applejack and the opulence of timely oak, a mouthfilling style of Pinot Gris, worthy of the finest gourmandise.

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.

Everything about the wines from this artisanal estate is an achievement of the most exacting hands on viticulture, ultimately very small batch in production. A very special site at the estuary of Coal River Valley is the source of its exquisite fruit, a superior parcel of Chardonnay called Old Block and established 1991, yields a harvest every year of the best tasing grapes in the entire vineyard. Generously proportioned with apple isle stonefruits and a judicious measure of French oak, the Chardonnay of choice to accompany foie gras or white meat terrine.

The Cloudy Bay winemaking team suggested doing the unthinkable in vintage 1991. Why not ferment some juice with indegenous yeast, completely wild microflora, untrained and uncultured? This was uncharted territory in New Zealand and only nature could decide the outcome. A few barrels were set aside for trial, the juices quickly fermented into a pungent brew. Unperturbed, the winemakers let nature take it's course until spring, when the ugly duckling had morphed into a savoury complex wine of great intensity and voluptuous mouthfeel.

Cloudy Bay's Pinot Gris began life as a handful of vine plantings sourced from a French nursery in the mid 1990s. The cuttings were painstakingly propagated by the Cloudy Bay nursery crew and gradually planted out over three years at the estate's Mustang Vineyard. The impatient winemakers stood by, eagerly awaiting their first crop, harvested in 2004, it yielded a single barrel of wine. The style today is a profound expression of Pinot Gris, effusive with aromas of mandarin and pear, abundant flavour, fine texture and a gentle touch of residual sweetness.

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.

Bedecked with gold medals, significant trophies and countless five star commendations. Clonakilla is a wine that's ultimately determined in the vineyard, where hard work is required to open up the vine leaf canopies, limiting yields and encouraging vines to make grapes with riper flavour profiles. The vinification process embraces old world techiques such as the inclusion of whole bunches in the ferments, macerations and extravagant French oak barrel maturation.

Clare Valley Riesling can be found on the finest winelists around the world. Many of the region's most prestigious brands are still owner operated by the same families that established Clare Valley to viticulture during early settlement. Enter an unlabelled Riesling by one of the nation's most eminent families of Riesling specialists, revered throughout the Australian wine industry for their enduring excellence. A deeply engaging and envigorating young wine that's guaranteed to please, delivered without any freight fee by the dozen to every destination in Australia.

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.

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.

Domaine Christian Salmon endeavour to preserve the regional characters of Sauvignon Blanc from the rolling landscapes of Sancerre, the freshest fruit is treated to the most pristine ferments, completely unwooded and unoaked. Initial impressions of intense flint minerality, verging on gunpowder. Being so aromatic, the wine opens up with air, exuding nuances of the orchard, particularly ripe pear. Christian Salmon will perfectly accompany all refined cuisines, seafood such as fruits de mer au beurre blanc or artisanal cheeses like fromages de chevre.

Domaine Christian Salmon are a family owned estate covering fifteen hectares along Coteaux Buetons, between the appellations of Sancerre and Pouilly Fume in France's Valley Loire. The winemaking has remained largely unchanged after many generations and continues to deliver the most praiseworthy examples of French Sauvignon Blanc with every vintage. Christian Salmon leaves one with an overall sensation of elegance and harmony, one of France's most charming and immediately likeable styles of white wine.

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.