Tolpuddle Coal River Valley Chardonnay, 2022, Tasmania, Australia

Our View:

Tolpuddle Vineyard has developed a worldwide reputation for it's quality of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir wines, helping to put Tasmania firmly on the map as a top quality wine region. 

The Coal River Valley Chardonnay is a wine of finesse and poise, with delicate flavours of lime, green apple peel and a savoury biscuit note. Drinking well now and will develop over the next 10 years or so.

The Wine:

Located about 20 minutes drive from Hobart, in the south east of Tasmania, the Coal River Valley has established a reputation for growing exceptional quality grapes. With a climate that is at the cool extremes for viticulture in Australia, it is no surprise that Chardonnay and Pinot Noir perform so splendidly.

The Tolpuddle Vineyard was first planted in 1988 by Tony Jordan and Garry Crittenden with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and established a reputation for growing exceptional quality grapes. The vineyard took its name from the Tolpuddle Martyrs, who were transported to Australia in 1834 for starting an agrarian union. Tolpuddle vineyard was purchased by Michael Hill Smith and Martin Shaw in 2011 who are the current owners. 

The 20 hectare north-east facing vineyard is located in the Coal River Valley, which sits in a rain shadow, creating dry but cold conditions. The dry climate ensures there is very low disease pressure, which in turn means the grapes can be left on the vines longer to ensure they ripen fully, resulting in grapes of high aromatic intensity. The vineyard is situated on a gentle slope and the soil is light silica over sandstone and of moderate vigour, ensuring well-balanced vines. In 2006 the vineyard won the inaugural Tasmanian Vineyard of the Year award, reflecting the performance of this unique and distinguished site.

2022 proved to be the coldest vintage in more than a decade. Cool conditions, particularly around flowering, resulted in a combination of low yields and a high concentration of flavour. These cooler conditions persisted throughout the entire growing season which developed grapes with high natural acidity, which is now synonymous with Tolpuddle Vineyard fruit.

The grapes were all hand picked, whole-bunch pressed, and fermented in French oak barriques. The wine spent nine months in barrel with a mixture of toast levels, a third of which were new. There was gentle lees stirring as required, then a further two months in tank on lees prior to bottling.

Vegan, Vegetarian,

Tasting Note:

On the nose this wine has great purity with notes of lemon peel, lime zest, and fresh white flowers. The palate has an impressive persistence of flavour, excellent balance, fresh zingy acid and a distinct crystalline character.

The Facts:

What the critics say:

 96 Points - Ned Goodwin MW, jamesuckling.com

"Always a very good chardonnay. Often among the New World’s best. This said, it is always a pungent, flinty reductive iteration, considerably different to the more generous norm in these parts. Medium-bodied and typically taut, reeling off truffle, leesy oatmeal and white peach notes across a tautly furled, almost gritty climax of praline and hazelnut accents. This will age exceptionally well".

98 Points - Dave Brookes Halliday Wine Companion

"Another alluring Coal River chardonnay release from the folks at Tolpuddle. It’s at once full and concentrated but is reined in by a tight framework of acidity, coiling on rails of minerality before powering across the palate. Tension and detail on point, light textural phenolic elements give it a sleek and silken mouthfeel. The fruit tones of white peach, nectarine and citrus are cloaked in soft spice, white floral tones, struck match, almond paste and crushed stone and the wine displays a stony elegance and seriousness on the long finish. If we were to talk in hushed tones about what would constitute a Tasmanian Grand Cru chardonnay, the Tolpuddle would be the front-runner. Superb".

96 Points - Mike Bennie The Wine Front

"The Tolpuddle house style is still distinct in this wine but the flavour profile seems to have increased, pleasingly so. Elegance has long been the headline of course, and more of that here. This would have to be my favourite release of this distinguished wine. It’s compact and tense, precise and poised. It tastes fancy from hello and asserts a strong riff of chardonnay’s best assets of green apple, briny acidity, savoury-nutty undertows with a slick of cedary, spicy, cinnamon-meets-clove oak seasoning well measured into it all. Spicy, indeed, refreshing in that way and coolness with a sense of exceptionally judged, just-ripe fruit rippling with authority through the wine. It’s a persistent wine, immensely satisfying with each sip staining the palate gently. Inherently complex, gulpable with drinkability, wonderfully evocative of a cool place. A brilliant, crystalline chardonnay expression on hand".