Awards and Accolades

94 Points, Special Value Wine - James Halliday, Wine Companion
"Frankland Estate has been working diligently on its chardonnay particularly in the vineyard and it's starting to show. Lemon-barley water, citrus zest with some ginger spice and daikon radish crunch to the mouthwatering acidity, linear and very refined."

93 Points - Huon Hooke, Real Review
“Bright, light yellow colour with a lightly toasty cashew nut and grapefruit bouquet, fresh youthful and vibrant, the palate likewise brisk and fresh, crisp and tangy with firmness and tension. It’s medium concentrated. The finish is salty, minerally and very dry. Lip-smacking aftertaste…It is great value for money.”

From the Winery

100% organically grown chardonnay from the Isolation Ridge vineyard. The wine lifts out of the glass with white each and vanilla, spice and nut kernd. The palate is creamy fruit providing some weight and width. Stone fruit entwine with mineral and lime, giving the wine generous length and mouthfeel of minerality and stone. has hints of nuttiness and creamy fruit providing some weight and width. Melons and stone fruit entwine with lemon citrus acidity giving the wine generous length. Unmistakably cool climate chardonnay, drinking beautifully now and over the next 7 years. A dry spring and early summer was followed by a typically mild Frankland River growing season. Harvested in the last few days of February, fruit was in clean and ideal condition.

Fruit for this wine was sourced from three different locations in the Isolation Ridge vineyard at Frankland Estate. The vineyard is planted on undulating northern and eastern facing slopes and has duplex soils of ironstone gravel and loam over a clay sub soil. The vines are all from the low yielding (Mendoza) clone renowned for its “hen and chicken’ combination of large and small berries in the same bunch. This results in highly concentrated fruit flavours. The vine canopy is trained on a combination of vertical shoot and Scott Henry trellis to allow increased air circulation. The Isolation Ridge Vineyard is managed under organic principles, a practice we feel important for reflecting terror driven wines.

The fruit is lightly pressed into stainless steel tanks and allowed to settle for 24 hours. The juice is then racked off its heavy lees to 500 litre French puncheons for wild yeast fermentation. Some barrel stirring through fermentation and post fermentation occurred resulting in a wine with complexity and individuality. The wine was transferred out of barrel after 10 months on lees before being bottled. Minimal sulphur additions made prior to bottling