Winery: Tapanappa
Region: Tiers Vineyard, Piccadilly Valley, Adelaide Hills
Variety: Chardonnay
Your Wine Guy says:
Very limited production, less than 1000 dozens produced.
Intense peach and melon fruits on the nose combine beautifully with the French oak backbone. Time spent on the yeast lees and malo-lactic ferment has allowed the Tiers to show creamy notes even at this age. A complex offering from the legendary Tiers vineyard, at substantially less than the Petaluma example (the Croser family owns the vineyard and Tapanappa selects its Tiers Chardonnay fruit from the thinner and rockier soils on the top of the slope and Petaluma harvests the belly of the slope). Very long finish and good ageing potential. A consistent feature of Tiers Chardonnay is significant texture followed by a savoury finish and persistence of flavours.
96 Points YWG Drink to 2017+
Critics say:
"Interesting to see Tapanappa using 50% new oak with this wine, when Petaluma use 100% and charge a hell of a lot more for their Tiers Chardonnay, which isn't necessarily any better a wine. The Tapanappa is quite complex yet bright on the nose, with savoury, nutty accents of grapefruit, melon and lemon. The palate is surprisingly luscious, with a counter balance of good, mouthfilling structure for chardonnay, which is altogether contradicted by a very refined, restrained cool-climate fruit profile. It finishes very long, and should age particularly well."
95 points Australian Wine Journal, 4th of February 2010 Chris Plummer
"Tiers before bedtime? Not quite but it was an emotional experience nonetheless.
There’s some smoothness of the crème caramel and almond paste persuasion but here’s a wine that’s characterised by its intense crunchy acid and strong minerality. There’s a white flower character too and the fruit flavour is, well, I’d tilt at sort of a light peach/apple/citrus combination but nothing really stands out - it tastes like Chardonnay more than anything specific - which is a very good thing in my book. Subtle and harmonious, bone dry and long. It’s a big ticket item but you’re getting a pretty classy show for your money…and no food fights here either. Obviously I like this a lot."
95 Points Drink 2010 – 2016 Campbell Mattinson The Wine Front
"An impressively powerful, concentrated wine with grapefruit and cedary oak aromas already quite complex and rich. Intense, tightly structured, long and powerful in the mouth. Still a baby. Drink now to six years."
95 Points Huon Hooke Sydney Morning Herald, Good Living
"Lively, refined and beautifully focused, showing citrus, pineapple and green berry flavors that linger on the deft, complex finish. Best from 2011 through 2018.".
Wine Spectator, Nov 2009 Harvey Steiman
The winemaker says:
Tapanappa’s Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay is a very typical wine of the Tiers Vineyard in a warm vintage. The varietal aromas are ripe peach and melon. Subtle marzipan and brioche aromas and flavours are contributed by the malo-lactic, yeast lees contact and oak. The Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay will develop spicy honey and brulee characters with bottle age of up to 10 years.
Brian Croser Winemaker