2013 Aged Release M3 Chardonnay

WineWise - 2016 Championship Whites
This well known chardonnay is another where the volume has been turned down to great advantage. It’s a long flavoured wine with a structure that suggests it will be even better in a year’s time.
★★★★☆

James Suckling - jamessuckling.com - 13 March 2015
A pretty chardonnay with sliced-apple, pie-crust and pear character. Some straw and mineral undertones. Full body with bright acidity and a fresh finish. It's a little pulled-back now in style, turning a bit lean and skinny. Drink now. Score: 92 points

Nick Bulleid MW - Chardonnay Panel Tasting - Gourmet Traveller WINE - February 2015
2013 Shaw + Smith M3 is beautifully fine and fragrant with lemon aromas and an extraordinary pale, bright yellow colour to match. The palate is delicately flavoured with subtle sweet fruit. I loved its length and finesse. Bourne agreed, noting, "Bright, vibrant aromas of pink grapefruit and lemongrass. Lots of energy. On the palate there is white stone fruit and lemon sorbet. Tight, lean and racy."

Graeme Phillips - Hobart Mercury - 23 December 2014
Subtle, elegantly complex and beautifully balanced, this is a perfect amalgamof understated power, juiciness and finesse.

Sarah Ahmed - TheWIneDetective.co.uk - 22 October 2014
Sourced principally from Shaw + Smith’s vineyards at Woodside and Lenswood and fermented then aged for 9 months in new, one and two year old French barriques with natural yeasts, partial malolactic fermentation (30%) and batonnage.  Light straw with green glints.  A toasted cashew and nougat nose with white peach, cookie and sour dough which flavours follow through on a (feather) pillowy palate – yielding but with levity.  Great length too thanks to its subtly energetic undertow of grapefruity acidity.

Huon Hooke - 100 Top New Release Wines - 1 November 2014
This is very much in the pared-back Shaw + Smith style with a light colour and aromas of malt, almond and dusty rocky mineral notes. It’s delicate and lean with fresh but seamless acidity. A wine of real subtlety.  
Score: 93 points

James Halliday - Australian Wine Companion Newsletter - July 2014 (source)
The grapes come from exceptional estate vineyards at Lenswood, Lobethal and Woodside, and has always been known for its complexity, part due (although you mightn't realise this) to its use of mlf; fermentation in a cool, largely underground, cellar is another part of the explanation for the unfailing ability of the wine to deliver the goods. Drink by 2023.
Score: 96 points

Graeme Phillips - Top Drops, Sunday Times Perth - 17 August 2014
Consistently acclaimed as one of the country’s top modern chardonnays, this is subtle, elegantly complex and beautifully balanced – a perfect amalgam of understated power, juiciness and great finesse. 
Score: 5 Stars

Ross Noble - Courier - 23 July 2014
This 2013 vintage of M3 is also augmented with fruit from Lenswood and Lobethal. A luscious and elegant wine it is blessed with blossomy aromas and nectarine flavors with a hint of grapefruit and sweet but unobtrusive oak. Food: barbecued garfish

John Lewis - Newcastle Herald
Adam Wadewitz, joint dux of the 2009 Len Evans Tutorial at Pokolbin, runs Shaw + Smith winemaking, working with founding winemaker and joint proprietor Martin Shaw.  This M3 is from Adam's first vintage at the helm and is the first to include fruit from the recently acquired Lenswood vineyard.  It is straw-hued and has gooseberry scents. Lovely, refined white peach flavour glides on to the front of the palate and honeydew melon, lime zest and slate fruit characters marry with the vanillin oak on the middle.  Flinty acid refreshes at the finish.
Score: 5 glasses