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Ideal serving temperature: 10 - 13°C
Produced using sustainable practices
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Tasting notes

Vintage Guide

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2022

Shaw + Smith
M3 Chardonnay Half Bottle

2022

Shaw + Smith
Lenswood Vineyard Chardonnay

2023

Shaw + Smith
Pinot Noir

Notes

Style

Re-releasing in tiny quantities under the Shaw + Smith maturation program; allowing the wines to gain a level of complexity from careful bottle aging in our temperature-controlled cellar.

Still fresh and fine, belying the more than eight years in bottle. Some orange peel notes, a touch of creaminess, honeydew melon, and lovely softness and breadth on the palate. A delicious and balanced style aging gracefully.

Season

2016 had even ripening conditions, and our elevated sites gave us flavoursome, precise Chardonnay.
A warmer than average start to the growing season lead to good canopy and fruit development. January rainfall provided relief from the warmer temperatures and was timely to aid fruit development through the ripening period, resulting in healthy fruit being harvested two weeks earlier than average.

Vineyard

Predominantly from our Lenswood Vineyard, at 455 - 500m elevation. Undulating with east and west facing aspects, the soils are brown loams over clay with broken shale on the ridges. The vineyard was planted in 1999.

Vinification

Hand-picked and whole bunch pressed. Fermented and matured on lees in French oak barriques and puncheons.

Maturation

Although our wines always drink well on release, they age well too. To allow these wines to be enjoyed with bottle age we keep a little back each year.

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Reviews

Energetic and intense. A mellow and understated chardonnay but with plenty of detail in spice, gentle savouriness and winemaking seasoning, cool acidity, a tightly wound fruit profile, general minerality and high drinkability. Overall, elegant and refined, sleek across the palate and quite compact with a light juiciness in tow. Nougat, lime curd, green apple and ginger in the bouquet, a similar set of descriptors to taste, with a lively trail of spice following on. High in the pleasure stakes, this continues to be an impressive Hills chardonnay. 94 Points.

Mike Bennie, Halliday Wine Companion - August 2024

In case you were not aware you are drinking some of the first grapes picked from the S+S high density planting of the Piccadilly vineyard. Lemon verbena, grapefruit and wet concrete. Celery stem, fresh ginger and printer paper. Peach cheeks and almond nougat. A wash of electrifying acidity, coconut jelly creaminess and finishing with a sake like leesy quality. This is intense in flavour as we have come to expect from the M3 perhaps with more savoury shapes than previous years. It’s compact and muscular but with nice elongated lines of acidity and freshness of citrus fruit. For a chilly vintage this is showing very well now and will cellar up to 5 years. Serve with baked buttery bbq pork char siu bao buns. 95 Points.

Stanteh Wale, The Wine Pilot - June 2024

Past Vintages

2022

Second of a trilogy of cool La Niña years. Cool vintage with ripeness and fresh acidity.

Drink now or cellar until 2030

Tasting Note

2021

Exceptional year - balanced growing season.

Drink now or cellar until 2030

Tasting Note

2020

Season marked by extremes. Low yielding, high quality vintage.