Vintage
2017
ABV
13.5%
Wine Type
White
Wine Style
Still
Wine Description
Approx. 4 months after vintage, Geoff and Scott undergo a blind tasting to select the finest barrels from our Coonawarra and McLaren Vale vineyards that make the grade for our Reserve Chardonnay. These barrels are blended together in tank then returned to new French oak hogsheads for additional maturation prior to bottling.
Accolades
95 points (Sam Kim - Wine Orbit)
92 points (Australian Wine Showcase Magazine)
Winemaker's Bio
Young Geoff Merrill was raised on a sheep station in the far north of South Australia, until his family moved to the Barossa Valley in 1964 when Geoff was just 11 years old. Unsurprisingly, this is where Geoff’s links with the wine industry were first forged.
At age 17, Geoff joined B Seppelt & Son where he embarked on a 4 year winemaking traineeship. Following this, he was lured to South Africa in 1974 with the opportunity to work as an Experimental Winemaker with Stellenbosch Farmers Winery, after which he set off to explore Europe.
Returning to Australia in late 1975, Geoff joined Chateau Reynella as Assistant Winemaker and was promoted to Senior Winemaker just 2 years later. He held this position until 1985 when he became a Consultant Winemaker for Thomas Hardy & Sons, who bought Chateau Reynella in 1982.
