Shy Susan Chardonnay 2023

Written By Campbell Mattinson
Bottle of Shy Susan Chardonnay 2023.

Shy Susan Chardonnay 2023
$55, 13% alcohol, screwcap, Alpine Valleys.

From a ridiculously low yielding clone, and there are only two rows of it. It takes the Billy Button/Shy Susan crew three days to pick a miniscule 900 kgs. This chardonnay is distinctly different to everything else we see from the Alpine Valleys. It sees no new oak.

Smoky notes, a bit of flint, a core of white peach, a smear of nougat. This is A Grade chardonnay. It has an intensity, it’s complex, it’s elegant and it extends. Bacony oak, lactose and almond paste characters apply a gentle satiny-creaminess to the mouthfeel. This is a wine of character and length; it will still be drinking well in 20 years time. Leave this alone for a few years and then revel in it. 95+ points.

Campbell Mattinson

This post was written by Campbell Mattinson. Mattinson is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion book, former editor of Halliday magazine, former editor of Australian Sommelier Magazine and founder of The Winefront business. He is the author of five books on wine – four of which were bestsellers (The Wine Hunter, the Big Red Wine Book 2008, the Big Red Wine Book 2009, and the Big Red Wine Book 2010).

Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.

Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He’s the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He’s a past winner of a Louis Roederer International Wine Media Award; is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter; and is the author of the best-selling novel We Were Not Men. He’s also a winner of a St Kilda Film Festival Award (as writer-director) and is a former winner of the national Best Australian Sports Writing Award. In 2026 three of his photographs were short-listed for the World Food Photography Awards.

Campbell Mattinson, who is 100% independent, has tasted between 5000 and 10,000 wines each and every year for the past 25 years. He tastes blind, in comparative brackets, as often as is practicable.

Campbell Mattinson is a journalist, a photographer, a filmmaker and a wine critic. In all of these mediums his prime motive is to tell people's stories.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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