Excellent 2013 Greywacke Chardonnay

Richard Ellis stopped by today with a few of the latest releases from Greywacke, the label of ex-Cloudy Bay supremo Kevin Judd.

I’ve written about Kevin’s Greywacke wines a few times over the years, with the Wild Sauvignon amongst Marlborough’s more interesting Savvies. Indeed the ’14 Greywacke Wild Sauvignon looked great today too. But it was this Chardonnay – which I haven’t seen in a few vintages – that really took the cake.

One of the things that sets this wine apart, according to Richard at least – is clonal material. Unusually for Marlborough, this is sourced from Mendoza clones, which Richard believes is a helps drive this wine’s personality.

What I like is how it manages to be bold and rich without looking broad. From the outset, the nose is full, powerful and wild, with a solidsy fullnss and a full array of marzipan and honey peach aromatics. No shrinking violet. It’s even a bit cheesy. For all that impact, all that mealy thickness and weight, this pulls clean and dry through the palate. That acidity is really quite disarming for such a ripe wine. It’s almost an enigma that balance, and gee it makes for a satisfying mouthful of full-bodied, complex, deliciousness.

The only problem here? Supply. Historically this has been a small make for Greywacke, and it is only in the last few vintages where more fruit has come on stream, also sourced from fellow ex-Cloudy Bay personality Ivan Sutherland’s Dog Point Vineyard (where 90% of the fruit for Greywacke come from).

If this wine is anything to go by, it is agreat thing that we’re going to see more Greywacke Chardonnay in the future. Best drinking: 2016-2022. 18.5/20, 94/100. 14.5%, circa $40-45AUD. Would I buy it? Definitely.