I meant to open this Ross Hill Pinnacle Series Chardonnay 2022 for #ChardoMay, but it slipped through the cracks. Plenty of highlights in the Ross Hill range too FWIW. Anyway, this is sourced from the Ross Hill vineyard on the Mount Canobolas slopes. 25% new French oak and full malo. You’d expect it to be a big wine, but it’s not – there’s a combination of green melon fruit and generous flavours, but still, a certain Orange regional steeliness too. I like the more cosseting middle this vintage, with a nice peachy stonefruit mouthful of chunky generosity, even if sacrifices a little definition as a result. Enjoyable already.

Best drinking: now to five years. 17.7/20, 92/100. 13.3%, $40. Ross Hill website. Would I buy it? Worth a bottle.