93 Points - James Halliday Australian Wine Companion
From Tumbarumba in New South Wales this stunning cool wine is a true balance of all the right flavours. Perfect with salmon, grilled chicken, or a cous cous and pomegranate salad.
The grapes for this beautiful McW 660 Reserve Chardonnay were handpicked, and then the whole bunch pressed. The resulting wine features a light straw yellow colour accompanied by a green rim. The fragrant nose exhibits scintillating aromas of citrus, white nectarine, biscuity oak and gunflint. A sip of the wine reveals sweet flavours of citrus and grilled cashew nut. Flinty acidity integrates with the firm and linear palate to provide a creamy texture, culminating the wine in a long and seamless finale. This delicious Chardonnay can be enjoyed within a cellaring term of 9 years from vintage. It tastes fantastic with roast chicken served alongside spring vegetables and grilled salmon with lemon butter sauce.
From The Winery
Colour: Pale Straw
Aroma:Bright grapefruit and green melon with cashew nut and background toasty oak.
Palate: Impeccably structured, this fine wine shows all the classic features of the vintage. A linear palate of crunchy mineral acidity, white nectarine and nutty creamy oak complexity, with great length and freshness. All of these signatures together form a complex and classy, balanced wine.
Tumbarumba experienced a balanced growing season with some warmer than average temperatures, which caused the fruit to mature earlier than average and pulled forward average harvest dates by about 10 to 12 days. As varietals like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir were developing rapidly through early and mid-February, some unseasonal rain events hit the region creating some disease pressure although with some robust viticultural practices our vineyards in the area were not adversely affected.
Selected fruit was hand picked and a combination of whole bunch and crushing to press; full grape solids and some settling was used with a combination of natural indigenous yeast and inoculated yeast. All vineyard blocks were kept separate and barrel fermented in French oak barriques and hogsheads, with 20% new oak and the balance 2 to 4 year old oak. Post fermentation stirring was used to build texture and length, then maturation was completed on lees in barrel for 9 months. No malolactic fermentation was used to retain the fantastic crisp acidity of Tumbarumba Chardonnay. Barrels were selected individually for the blend and the wine was stabilised, gently fined and filtered before bottling.
Under prime cellaring conditions this wine has the ability to cellar well for up to 5 years.
Recommended food pairing; baked whole salmon with peaches, almonds and cous cous
Reviews & Awards
GOLD - Canberra and Region Wine Show
"A very well made wine with high quality grapes the cornerstone. There is a purity to the white peach, nectarine and citrus flavours, oak an essential means to the end, but not of particular significance in the flavour profile. Great value." 93 Points, James Halliday - The Wine Companion
"Winemaker Bryan Currie says ‘this could be the best wine in this new range; good position to comment having spent a lot of time in Tumbarumba during this, the first harvest in his new role at McWilliams, ‘I’m pretty excited about Tumbarumba and what is going on in and out of the region, and McWilliams has access to a lot of land under vine to draw on’. Mostly wild ferment, time on solids, no malolactic ferment, time in new barrel (around 20%), the rest in older barriques. There’s a whiff of potpourri and musk in the perfume but it’s firmly in the mesh of fruits and hint of nuttiness that these scents lie. Very chardonnay to start. Crisp, clean and with good energy across the palate, trimmed down with some spice, gentle wood and light chalkiness in texture. There’s flavour here, but delicate, good expression of the variety and it feels like it comes from cool places in Tumbarumba. Delicious to drink too." 92 Points, Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
Don't Pay: $25.00
WBW Rating: 93/100
Closure: Screw Cap
Region: Tumbarumba, NSW
Winemaker: Bryan Currie
Drink now until: 2020
Alc/Vol: 13.5 %