Toolangi Pauls Lane Chardonnay 2024
$50, 13.4% alcohol, screwcap, Yarra Valley.
Straight onto the ‘buy’ list. This is flinty, refined, well fruited and just plain beautiful to drink. It tastes of pears, steel, cedar, white peach and citrus, and from start to finish it feels assured, energetic and confident. There’s a mix of both popcorn and pebble characters on the finish, along with more flint and a touch of mineral. It’s a beauty. 94 points.
Campbell Mattinson has been an independent journalist, wine critic and photographer for forty years. He founded The Winefront, is a former chief editor of the Halliday Wine Companion (and former editor of Halliday magazine), and is the only Australian to have won the Australian Wine Communicator of the Year Award more than once. He is 100% independent, and tastes between 5,000 and 10,000 wines each year, blind and in comparative brackets as often as is practicable.
Mattinson is also the founder of the Mattinson Photography business.
