Longview Macclesfield Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2015

Longview are doing clever things in the Adelaide Hills, and this comes from their single vineyard at Macclesfield. It’s a curious wine though, in an odd style. Handpicked and wild fermented with half the barrels going through malo and all spending 3 months on lees (though it’s not certain if this means 3 months in barrel). Numbers: pH 3.45, TA 6.4.

For a ‘more serious, elegant’ style this is quite old school, the fruit all tropical mango , cashew and some banana ferment character in a rather full and chubby style that is anything but elegant. Clever barrel work, but that full weight and palate warmth marks this as almost an old-school style (and little less cohesive because of it). Odd. Best drinking: 2016-2018. 16.5/20, 88/100. $40, 13.8%. Would I buy it? No.