Not part of the in-crowd since 2005!

Brookland Valley Chardonnay 2008 ($40) ★

The first time I tasted the 2008 Brookland Valley Chardonnay, I knew it was a belter.

Even in the noisy and chaotic environment that was the Perth leg of the Good Food and Wine Show, the class of this wine was as obvious as a designated driver at the event.

The bottle consumed with that evening’s Japanese dinner confirmed the pedigree of the wine, but perhaps most telling of the wine’s awesomeness was the swag of silverware it picked up at the 2009 QANTAS Mt Barker wine show: the trophies for best chardonnay, best white wine and overall best wine of the show all went home with this Margaret River beauty.

What gets me most about the wine is its skeleton of fine, tight, almost riesling-esque acidity. It’s the perfect stage for the wine’s super focused grapefruit, lime, lemon, crisp apple and oak-derived vanilla to shine on. In the short time they’ve all been together, all the components are already singing from the same hymn book and their majestic, juicy song carries in the mouth for an eternity. Right in my chardonnay groove, this finds delicious middle ground between the sharp, low-alcohol chardy style and the blousy, butterscotch and melon oak monsters synonymous with yesteryear (though modern examples can still be found). www.brooklandvalley.com.au

Word is stocks of this wine are limited which is a real shame as it’s one of the best young examples of Margaret River – and therefore, West Australian – chardonnay I can recall ever imbibing. For a while, I subscribed to the commonly held belief that the leaner, minerally Margaret River chardonnays of 2006 represented the pinnacle of the style in the region.

But the more 2008 chardies I try, the more certain I become that this will the vintage chardonnay will be remembered for.

Further to that: word on the grapevine – or more correctly, from the wineries – is that this year’s vintage was even better with incredible natural acidity in the whites, so fellow modern chardonnay tragics are really in for a treat once the ’09s reach market.