15 of the very best Hunter Valley Chardonnay tasted blind w/ Liz Silkman & Jerome Scarborough

The Hunter Valley has some of the oldest Chardonnay vines on the planet (the HVD Vineyard, planted 1908) and a storied history of the country’s best Chardonnay wines. Yet, if I did a show of hands, how many of you would pick ‘the Hunna’ as their favourite Chard region?

I don’t know if I’d put my hand up.

Margaret River, the Adelaide Hills, Mornington Peninsula, Macedon Ranges, Yarra Valley… all these (cooler, literally and figuratively) regions would sit higher in my ‘Aussie Chardonnay regions I like best’ hierarchy above the Hunter Valley.

Semillon? Give me more. But Hunter Chardonnay is somehow less exciting.

It’s largely a perceived style bias. In my mind, the sunny, golden, ‘buttery’ Chardonnay that I first coveted when I got into wine 25 years ago has largely moved on (as have I). The Chardy mode that has replaced it seems like an each-way bet between freshness/delicacy and peachy richness without filling up either Chardonnay stylistic cup.

Given all this context, a blind tasting of 15 of the best Hunter Valley Chardonnay wines with local heroes of the grape Liz Silkman & Jerome Scarborough seemed like the chance for redemption. A confirmation, perhaps, that I’ve let my shitty biases go unchecked. Or at least a reminder about why I once emptied Vat 47, Lakes Folly Chard, and Scarborough Yellow Label as first-choice options.

This lineup didn’t disappoint, either. I came away (happily) reminded of what is good and great.

Undoubtedly, it helped to have Liz, the Hunter Valley Chardonnay Queen, on hand. Liz is more than just the winemaking talent behind Silkman Wines; she also crafts an ocean of wine (260 different wines this year) for other people through the First Creek contract winemaking/storage/packaging arm. Indeed, it can be trickier sometimes to work out what the Silkman family haven’t touched in some way, let alone how the Hunter Valley Wine Show can feel like the Silkman show (Liz won Best Chardonnay among seven trophies this year, just to prove a point). Stir in the considered opinions of Jerome Scarborough, whose family drives what is inarguably the most important Chardonnay brand in the Hunter, and it’s probably unsurprising that I came home with some long-lost Hunter Chard love in my heart.

That said, it also helped to see a proper top-shelf selection—nothing but net. This is especially important when tasting blind, as you waste no time on filler. It was also an ideal way to end my brief Hunter sojourn a few months back (you can read about some of the other good bits here and here).

As you’ll see below, the wines were served in small flights grouped by vintage and all double-blind (i.e. I knew nothing of their identities). My notes are as written without knowing the wines, with further context added in italics.

2023

2023 is being shouted about for reds, and the Chardonnay wines seem as great. As Liz explains, it was also a ‘historically large vintage for the Hunter Valley’, which typically coincides with the best wines. Conversely, 2024 will be up to 50% down, which is even more of a reason to be excited by 2023. Liz also notes that in 2023, the volume of fruit was so high that ‘the wines just soaked up all the oak’, with the thoughts in barrel something along the lines of ‘where did all that oak go’. A 10/10 vintage, and it’s hard not to appreciate the golden fruit in these wines as a whole.

Margan Timbervines Chardonnay 2023

From Broke. Off ‘red soils’ which is a constant talking point – the idea that the best wines come from a blend of the volcanic clay soils (favoured for Shiraz) and more classic sandy alluvial soils (the Semillon soils). Anyway, this is made with full solids and weighs in at 13.5%. I quite liked it, and coming back the volume of flavour was great.

Butterscotch and yellow peach and nectarine – it’s immediately golden. Golden sao richness goes end to end through the palate, a more opulent toasted richness through the finish. Enjoyable and open, if maybe a little obvious. Lots of flavour. 18/20, 93/100.

Tinkler Poppys Chardonnay 2023

Wild ferment, no malo, 25% new oak. 12.5%, $45ish. Needs time.

At first, I thought this was tighter and less obvious, but as it expands, it opens up to give more apricot and creamy stonefruit. There’s green and yellow fruit here, and it seems a little sweet and sour—definitely light and shade but still coming together. 17.7/20, 92/100+.

Brokenwood Oakey Creek Chardonnay 2023

Handpicked. Full solids. 35% new oak for 6 months. 12.5% alc, $66. This is the wine of the bracket for mine—it just feels so right. It was a pleasure seeing this after the 2022 two nights earlier, as this vintage just feels like more everything.

A little extra honeysuckle perfume and trades in some reductive elements in the mix. Cool and classy, very modern, less about yellow fruit and probably less alcohol. Also, high quality, if perhaps a little lean and less plump. Slightly taut finish. This is interesting and complex. 18.7/20, 95/100.

Audrey Wilkinson Winemakers Selection Chardonnay 2023

12.5% alc. Circa $40. A bit overawed in this company.

A nice toasted peach oak fullness, plump and playful yellow fruit and oak tannins. It is a straightforward wine for this lineup, maybe not the expanse of some wines in this lineup, but maybe it’s just a bit lean. 17.5/20, 91/100.

Pooles Rock Single Barrel Chardonnay 2023

12.5% alc. Here’s a wine that manages the balance of flavour perfectly. Circa $70.

A great balance in this bracket between flavour and restraint. A full gamut of winemaking with yellow fruit and oak weaved in. Stylish. Cool and sophisticated palate straddles the best of both worlds too, although the finish is just a bit leaner than expected. Delicious ultimately. 18.5/20, 94/100

2022

A wet and late vintage. ‘Finer (but) less fruit weight’ according to Liz. I see a ‘grey’ note in the 2022 wines that is hard to shake. A pebbly, sandy leanness that is really amplified according to different soil types this vintage, according to Jerome. As he suggests ‘a wet year gives you permission to pick earlier’ and I can see more acidity and more artifice in some of these 2022 vintage wines.

Tyrrell’s Vat 47 Chardonnay 2022

13.3% alc. All Short Flat Vineyard fruit, which has both red clay and sandy soils. Though I picked this as a sandy soil style. Typically, Vat 47 is a slow-burner for mine – you need to drink it at five years old, and it’s entertaining that’s how it showed blind. Important plus signs.

Tinned peach. She juicy. Creamed peach. creamed peach palate too, with mealy oak. Just a little bit shy and sweet and sour. 17.7/20, 92/100+

Winmark Single Vineyard Reserve Chardonnay 2022

12.5% $66. The Winmark wines have come a long way in recent years.

Cool, complex and classic nose. Refined, builds slowly with little whispers of fruit but otherwise refined, a bit reductive, some oak tannins sticking through, but very refined. 18/20, 93/100+

Silkman Reserve Chardonnay 2022

12.3%. $60. I really warmed to this on the second approach. At first, it looked a bit clinical, but on the second pass, it was difficult to miss the quiet intensity.

Sweet and sour. Some golden peach juice and oak really stamps on this. A bit grey and sullen, but super high quality. Long termer style, and arguably has the most intensity of this bracket. 18.5/20, 94/100.

Scarborough Keepers of the Flame Chardonnay 2022

13%, $100. From the Cottage Vineyard, and 2/3rds went through malo, 10 months in new French oak. I came back after it was unmasked for another look and realised that the plus signs are so important here – this feels just-bottled.

Another moody wine. A bit reductive and fruit backward. There’s a slightly sour profile here that is hard to shake, but the layers of oak and winemaking add so much. Slow burner though – a very technically perfect and stylish wine, but also a bit raw right now. 18/20, 93/100+

Usher Tinkler Reserve Chardonnay 2022

Under cork. 12.5%, $55. It is a fascinating statement wine in a huge wax-dipped bottle. I’d like another look at this to actually drink, as it’s so attention-seeking that I had myself second-guessing.

A very different wine. Golden, and worked and layered. Lots of flash-bang winemaking here – golden yellow, nutty, mealy waxy flavours, and lots of everything. I don’t mind this, although I bet its divisive in the Valley. Not at all unwieldy for all that artifice. Top class. 18.7/20, 95/100.

Horseshoe Vineyard Hunter Valley Reserve Chardonnay 2022

13.9% alc. From the Upper Hunter Valley and looked different to the other wines in this lineup if purely on ripeness.

Slightly forward. A bit more golden buttered yellow flavour, tinned peach, palate doesn’t feel as complete after the creamed oak and riper fruit, then slightly tart finish. 17.5/20, 91/100.

Charteris Pokolbin Selection Chardonnay 2022

12.5% alc.

Big nose – buttered bread, reductive and creamy all at once. Really congruent and golden style underneath, if full-tilt winemaking. Just a little bit worked, but pretty clever and tasty. 18/20, 93/100.

First Creek Wills Hill Chardonnay 2022

12.3% alc.

Subdued. Subdued palate too but a fine wine lurking in there too. Luckily I paid close attention to this as the closer you look, the more you see the interplay of golden yellow fruit and leesy flavour. Still a bit shy and lean on the finish. 17.7/20, 92/100+.

2021 and beyond

2021, in particular, was a wet vintage, but coming off a heavy drought and into the wet. Jerome believes that the vines were still recovering from the drought. While 2017 was a famously dry and warm vintage, renowned more for voluminous reds.

Tyrrell’s Belford Chardonnay 2021

12.5%, $40. Belford, famously, has sandy, talcum powder soils. In the scheme of things this is a grand bargain and drinking so nicely right now.

A little bottle age creeping in here with more toasted yellow fruit. Pineapply. Yellow fruit aplenty. Plump flavours, it doesn’t quite smash through the finish, but certainly quality and enjoyable. Will live forever – it’s almost Semillon-like in its acid push. 18/20, 93/100.

Silkman Reserve Chardonnay 2017

12.5%.

Still very youthful. The bottle age makes this a bit pineapply but certainly has lots of fleshy flavours and is still tight on the finish. Almost Semillon-like finish – sandy soil? That chubby middle is pretty appealing, even if it’s just a little sweet and sour. Good drinking. 17.7/20, 92/100.