TarraWarra Swallowfield Chardonnay 2024

Written By Campbell Mattinson

TarraWarra Swallowfield Chardonnay 2024
$80, 13% alcohol, screwcap, Yarra Valley.

There’s a new era at TarraWarra with Sarah Fagan making the wines, Samantha Isherwood as the GM and Chris Beard as the viticulturist. Exciting times. This single vineyard release – and its Southern Slopes Chardonnay 2024 sibling – is the first sure or major sign that changes have been made; the Swallowfield Vineyard is at Gembrook in the cool Upper Yarra, which is something of a statement. We’re going cooler. We’re going for refinement. Which is nothing against the previous era at TarraWarra, which had multiple high points over a long period of time.

This wine. It’s a beauty. It’s going to mature like an absolute darling. It has a shell-grit aspect, and a softness to its acidity, and an understatement, and a creaminess, and a long, slow, confident exhalation of flavour through the finish. It has a crisp water-colour aspect and yet it does not want for flavour. It’s not chardonnay 101, it’s chardonnay 303. It’s a couples of grades up. Stash it for two more years, and then drink over the next ten. 95 points.

Last year the new era of TarraWarra was featured in this article.

I’ve just tasted the TarraWarra Swallowfield Pinot Noir 2024 for The Winefront and that’s an exciting Pinot Noir if ever there was one.

Campbell Mattinson

This article was written by Campbell Mattinson, founder of The Winefront and mattinson, and former chief editor of Halliday.

When you pick up a wine book and see thousands of top-scoring wines, it’s hard to know which wine to choose. Mattinson guides you through this maze, giving you an honest view of the best Australian wines, the best wine stories, the best wine producers, the best value wines and simply, the best tasting wines. Importantly, Mattinson will tell you about the top-rated wines and also about the underrated wines. In short, Mattinson knows Australian wines inside and out.

Mattinson has been a photo-journalist since 1987. For the past 25 years he’s been a voice that you can trust when you’re looking for the best wines. 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, and is the author of the award-winning book The Wine Hunter. He’s not afraid to put a score beside a wine. But what he’d rather do, is tell you the wine’s story.

https://www.campbellmattinson.com
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