Place of Changing Winds Larderdark Chardonnay 2022

“Close-planted vines. The wine rested in glass Wineglobes, the sentient alien looking pods that they are, and two oak casks. So elegant, so refined, poise and precision yet with flavour and depth. It opens with flickers of flinty mineral elements, toast and woody spices, sweet spice too, sugared almond, green apple, stone fruits and alpine herbal elements. The palate a good reflection of this, quite notable concentration and depth, a plushness trimmed with talc-like mineral pucker and a long, palate-staining, sweet spice finish. One of those wines you shake the last drops out of the bottle onto your tongue, or is that just me?”

“Low yields this vintage, which is a bummer, so not much made but great concentration of fruit weight and power the positive outcome. However, just when you think all the spiced stone fruit, citrus, nougat-like lees and cedary oak will add up to a weighty wine, it does an about-face. The acidity kicks in, reining this in beautifully. It is a distinctive wine and one day, will emerge as a wine of place.”

“The Place of Changing Winds 2022 Larderdark Chardonnay is a beauty. I was struck by how it eschewed the perhaps trendier reduction and toasty oak-framed narrative and instead observed a more earth-based principle of fruit, open sky and soil… The 2022 Larderdark Chardonnay is pure and slippery: it exudes an unfettered fruit profile and a splay of glassy phenolics. The wine is glossy and mineral, with star fruit, shaved fennel, white pepper, sea salt, pink grapefruit, scratched citrus and crushed nuts. The wine is wide without being broad, and it provides textural support upon which the fruit relies. This is a remarkably beautiful wine, but it is quite distinct. It doesn't go down the reductive, oaky path; rather, it adheres to ground-based principles of fruit, vast sky and earth. It's a beauty. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under Diam and wax.”