Another excellent Evans & Tate Chardonnay to try + more from the west

Despite all the wine industry’s rhetoric around terroir and how ‘wines are made in the vineyard’, there’s still too much evidence about how systems and processes in the winery are key to the success of a wine.

More correctly, while you can’t make great wines from average fruit, the difference between good and great is as much about winemaking decisions as fruit quality.

For evidence, I present you with the trophy-winning excellence of the Evans & Tate Redbrook Chardonnay wines.

Ever since the Fogarty family took over the Evans & Tate brand, the quality of the Redbrook wines has gone from ‘solid, with the odd highlight’ to sweeping away wine shows like kings (like what happened here) and being proclaimed ‘Australia’s Best Chardonnay‘.

It’s not like the raw materials have significantly changed. The wines are still sourced from the same mature Wilyabrup vineyard, and the style hasn’t shifted much (beyond the usual broader fashions around oak, reduction etc).

The wines are just better, and I’d argue it’s as much about better processes, better manpower (Julian Langworthy is a serious talent) and better decision-making. No doubt some stability helps, with the McWilliams family reign not exactly golden years for Evans & Tate (especially towards the end), but that’s about improved processes as well.

Do you agree?

I certainly loved the 2019 Redbrook Chardonnay, and now, with the 2020 Reserve Chardonnay in the glass in front of me, it’s obvious that this is a mad quality streak.

Evans & Tate Redbrook Reserve Chardonnay 2020

The bottle is festooned with medals. So many shiny golds and from quality wine shows. Deserved, too – this is a winner. Golden butter nut worked nose, showing all the winemaking tricks, but with perfect grapefruit tang. Indeed, it’s an acid-shaped wine, but the winemaking layers on top give generosity and flavour. The nuts vs grapefruit interplay is just excellent, and the whole package is just a delight of complexity and grapefruity freshness as Margaret River Chardonnay does so well.

Best drinking: good now, no hurry to drink – it will be good in 3-4 years too. 18.7/20, 95/100. 13.5%, $65. Would I buy it? Sure would, you could pay almost double this price in Margs for similar quality.

Also from Evans & Tate

Evans & Tate Redbrook Estate Chardonnay 2020

Another fully worked Margaret River Chardonnay is also loaded with trophies, and you can see why – a really precise wine. Tangy, with a palate driven by lemon citrus, to the point where it gets a bit raw on the finish, but no doubt that it has power and intensity. I do feel like the oak and reductive elements fight with the acidity here, but gee this is a clever, clever wine, if not quite the natural ease of the Reserve wine.

Best drinking: maybe better next year, but good now. 18/20, 93/100. 13%, $40. Would I buy it? I’d shell out for the Reserve wine.

Evans & Tate Redbrook Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2018

Bay leaf, cedar, eucalyptus – it feels like proper Margaret River Cabernet. It’s a bit of a drying and minty thing, though, and the flow of dark berry and mint fruit feels just a little ungenerous if resoundingly bitter and tannic – it has some of the Cabernet ‘doughnut hole’ palate profile, with a fruit dip on the palate. High quality but also a bit lean and minty for gold medals.

Best drinking: later. It will likely be in a better place at ten years old and live to twenty-plus. 17.7/20, 92/100. 14%, $75. Would I buy it? A glass.

Evans & Tate Redbrook Estate Cabernet Merlot 2020

Brambly, drying and a bit raw. You’re left waiting for the mid-palate to fill out. Plenty of structure and decent oak make this still a solid silver, but it needs more generosity for higher marks.

Best drinking: later. Another five years? 17.5/20, 91/100+. 14.5%, $40. Would I buy it? A glass.