Giaconda Chardonnay 2021 Magnum

97+ Points - Gary Walsh

I’d say this is the best Giaconda Chardonnay I’ve tasted, which says something in itself. I like that although it’s a powerful wine, all the elements are in lockstep, and in that way it’s kind of less overt in personality, which is a good thing.
Nectarine, preserved lemon and lime rind, plenty of ginger and spice, white flowers, smoky bacon, struck match. It offers a juicy burst of stonefruit and grapefruit, spice and pepper, a layer of toasty clove oak, brine and complementary sulphide complexity, plenty of flinty texture through a gentle creamy cashew gloss, with a cool and tight zesty finish of impeccable length. It’s elemental as at now, for sure, but the flow and harmony is second to none. So very impressive.

100 Points - Erin Larkin (Wine Advocate)

Having tasted five bottles of this remarkable wine over the past year (most of them mine), I can confirm that it is evolving and changing with time in the bottle, but each time I taste it, I am amazed by its ability to highlight parts of the wine I may not have focused on the last time I tasted it. Twice this week, the 2021 Estate Vineyard Chardonnay has spoken first of its reduction and flint: it is bony and austere and taut, and I mean this in the best of ways. It speaks of its architecture currently, over its fruit. Yet it is propelled by the fruit. Giaconda manages focus and precision alongside its famous reduction, and this is what separates it from other producers in the country. It may be easy to can the reduction if it's not your preferred quality in Chardonnay, but the fruit and phenolic focus of the wine is untouchable. This is inimitable. I'm running out of bottles to taste, but I've loved every single one so far.

98 Points - James Halliday

The wonder that is chardonnay is laid out beautifully, masterfully, intelligently and artfully here. In a good year, intensity deepens, flavours soar. Lifted aromas of orange blossom, peach, nectarine, grapefruit flesh, oatmeal and grilled nuts with a hint of matchstick. It's plush, luxuriant and textural to taste, brightened by juicy, filigree-fine, insistent acidity. Both vibrantly youthful and complex. The vinous adjectives flow. Beautiful.