The top white wine from Craggy Range – Les Beaux Cailloux Chardonnay – had a four-year break while their Gimblett Gravels Vineyard was replanted. This 2019 is the first in a run of fine vintages that bodes well for the wine’s timely return. A pale straw-gold in the glass, with an elegant but inviting perfume filled with peach, grapefruit, cashew nut, oatmeal, oyster shell and tarragon. Very fine, taut and detailed in a palate that is equal parts succulent and restrained. Complex and layered with a balance at the core that is the trump card. Oak is generous and nutty, acidity is electric, and the fruit is plushly ripe – but not one part outguns the other, rather working in an endless ebb and flow producing a spirited statement throughout. Quite direct and focussed, you’re driven to the finish quite briskly, but it shows excellent length. Look for this to cellar well. 95pts
Craggy Range Les Beaux Cailloux 2019
