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Awards, Ratings & Reviews
James Halliday Australian Chardonnay & Cabernet Challenge
Gold Medal
2023 Vintage · Awarded: 2025
Sommeliers Choice Awards
Gold Medal
2023 Vintage · Awarded: 2025
Jane Faulkner – Halliday Wine Companion · 2023 Vintage
“There’s a generosity of flavour coming through this vintage, with stone fruit and preserved lemon with fresh grapefruit, too. The creamy lees and cedary oak carry through the fuller-bodied palate, giving this opulence but not heaviness, with fine acidity keeping everything in check.”
Campbell Mattinson – The Wine Front · 2023 Vintage
“This is a fabulous release. Bang, we’re off to the races. It’s intense, it’s layered, it’s lovely and it’s long. It’s also harmonious. Stonefruits, lemon myrtle, beeswax and assorted florals. It’s pretty and it’s lively and while it’s not plush, the palate has a bit of spread to it, a bit of luxury. The acidity here, dripping with flavour as it is, is a bit of a masterclass too.”
Steve Leszczynski – Qwine · 95/100 · 2023 Vintage
“Concentrated, layered and devilishly moreish - this Montalto Estate Chardonnay is a fabulous drink to curl up to… What a delight! Sip slow and embrace. Superb drinking.”
Erin Larkin – The Wine Advocate · 2023 Vintage
“The 2023 Chardonnay is lean and nutty, with pressed white flowers, salty acidity and layers of leafy herbs. In the mouth, the palate is all about honeydew melon and a dusty, musky character that actually sits quite well within the fruit. Lovely acid provides drive through the finish. Pretty wine.”
About This Wine
The Montalto Estate Chardonnay is produced from hand-harvested fruit from the Mornington Peninsula. Whole-bunch pressing is utilised, with no SO₂ added until bottling, resulting in oxidative juice handling throughout vinification. A considered amount of solids is retained during fermentation.
After pressing, the juice is transferred to French oak barriques and puncheons, with 26% new oak. Wild fermentation is followed by natural malolactic fermentation, after which the wine is matured on lees with stirring as required. The wine is aged for 11 months in oak prior to blending and bottling.
Specifications
- Vintage: 2023
- Grape Variety: Chardonnay
- Region: Mornington Peninsula / Victoria / Australia
- Fermentation: Wild fermentation in French oak
- Maturation: 11 months in French oak barriques and puncheons (26% new), lees aged
- Production Attributes: Whole bunch pressed; wild ferment; natural malolactic fermentation
- Alcohol: 13.0%
- Sweetness: Dry
- Acidity TA: 6.68 g/L
- Acidity pH: 3.22
- Drinking Window: 2024–2031
