2024 Garagiste 'Le Stagiaire' Chardonnay

Place: Mornington Peninsula, VIC

Variety: Chardonnay

Farming: Sustainable

Barney Flander's doesn't 'make' Le Stagiaire wines specifically for this label, all his ferments start out as potential single vineyard wines, and so the single site wines are barrel selections, with the remaining wines bottled under this label. This gives us some idea of how he's able over deliver, year in year out and, we might add that the wines that make up this terrific value Chardonnay could quite easily have been bottled as single vineyard wines.

The 2024 Stagiaire Chardonnay could very well be the best release of this wine we have seen. The aroma profile is intense and powerfully concentrated with a hint of succulence--generous and pulpy stone fruit to the fore. An immediate mouth-watering citrus blast is quickly followed by layers of flinty minerality, a hint of reduction and a wisp of garrigue--all supported by perfectly balanced fresh acidity.