"One of the best producers of Pinot in the region, and this is another excellent example. The individual clones and vineyards were kept separate in small open fermenters. Some whole bunch fruit was used and added to the natural ferments to lift aromatics and add that subtle structural complexity and palate feel. After basket pressing, it went into seasoned French oak barriques and puncheons with full solids and then matured for nine months. So it gets a fair amount of winemaking detail, and the result is an exceptionally classy wine. Aromas of cherry and spice with a little plummy undertow. Medium- to light-bodied palate, displaying tremendous intensity and a lovely textural mouthfeel. Just a faint hint of truffly complexity adds to the picture."

Ray Jordan (Winepilot)

"Lots of pretty raspberry compote hover above emergent sous-bois, adding savoury dimension and complexity. Red cherry and cranberry tones fill out the fruit profile, and a good lick of ground nutmeg adds spice. The palate is buoyant and lifted with a lovely melding of earth, red fruits and spice: raspberry, liquorice root, red cherry, turned earth, autumn leaves and snapped twigs. Velveteen and long, with tight, fine-grained tannins providing frame alongside a surge of vibrant acidity drawing it all to extended length. A lovely, pretty and pure expression of fine, firm, balanced Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir that will no doubt reveal wonderful complexity with age. A stellar release."

Tom Kline (Winepilot)

"This does more than scratch the itch. But for all of its structure and balance – and undergrowth-driven complexity – this really does have Drink Me written all over it. It’s cherried and earthen, spicy and sweet-sour, with both sinewy tannin and a well-judged plushness to its texture. Toasty oak comes through as whispers at most, and everything just feels in excellent good order. It’s well sustained too. Yes please. This is very good."

Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

"Light to medium ruby red with a purple glint in the light. Capocollo and red cherry aromatics. Takes some time to open but as it grows in the glass we see a complex layering of red berry fruit, dried herbs, cured meats and dark loam notes. Tannins are silky, binding it all together with just enough tension to drive it without interrupting the flow, and it lingers very long at the finish. Patience will be rewarded."

Stuart Knox (The Real Review)

"From the cooler climes of Piccadilly Valley within the Adelaide Hills comes this quite delightful, delicate, yet flavoursome Chardonnay. It was fermented in oak using wild yeasts and then aged in a mix of new and old Burgundian oak for about nine months. Clearly, the aim is to retain texture and complexity while delivering a degree of delicacy and finesse. It does it in spades. Light lemon curd and citrus with a little vanilla pod on the nose, and then a palate that is quite fine and delicate, yet with a deeper intensity that extends through to a very long finish. This is a really appealing wine for the medium term, but great current drinking."

Ray Jordan (Winepilot)

"An excellent Chardonnay that takes you on a journey as it unfurls. There's quite a bit of creamy oak on first look before a swirl of the glass unlocks cinnamon, toasted nuts and a plume of wood smoke. The fruit is tightly wound, unfurling at a glacial pace to reveal just-ripe white nectarine, tight lemon and flickers of green apple, before some delicate lees-derived shortcrust pastry and pithy white grapefruit emerge with air. Taut and racy at this young age, though the bones are clearly there. The palate follows in kind — coiled and nervy, with a core trying hard to break free. Lemon, white grapefruit, ground cinnamon, fine cedar. A tight line of chalky phenolics wraps around the palate like a corset, and a shot of citrus-drenched acid saturates the back palate. There's genuine class on show, but its tightness and febrility require patience. When it opens up, it's a brilliant expression. Precise, structural, complex — one to watch blossom with time in the cellar."

Tom Kline (Winepilot)

"It’s clean, it’s fruity, it’s savoury around the edges and it’s a joy to drink. This chardonnay is straight down the line but gee everything has been executed very well. Pear, grapefruit, hay, cedar and yellow stonefruit characters put on a juicy, well-flavoured, energetic display from start to finish. The hay-like notes become more apparent as the wine breathes, as a positive. Lovely wine, this one."

Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

"Pretty aromas of just-ripe white stone fruit, grapefruit pith, grilled nuts, spice and a touch of struck flint. Fine and focused, with a drive of citrus, nectarine and tangy acidity. There's lovely complexity and layers here. Delicious."

Aaron Brasher (The Real Review)

"A very fine, sleek and racy expression of chardonnay, where understatement is a reward. Flint, green apple, lime, cinnamon spice, thyme herbal lift, all bundled up in a dart-shape thrust of energetic, lightweight white wine. A good, chalky pucker to finish. Bright as a button."

Mike Bennie (Halliday Wine Companion)

"White grapefruit and cinnamon spice lead, with fine cedar quick to follow. Like the estate Chardonnay, this is tightly wound and crystalline on first look, with a great deal clearly held in reserve. A good swirl reveals cashew cream, white florals, white nectarine and saline oyster shell minerality, along with a gentle underlay of flinty reduction adding further complexity. Exciting in its prettiness, purity and power. There's a great balance of energetic tension and creamy texture on the palate, the wine's power funnelled through architectural structure — tight phenolics and rolling waves of saline acidity pulling it all to vivid length. Balance, power, purity, complexity, age-worthiness. Ashton Hills are in the zone right now."

Tom Kline (Winepilot)

"Read this in tandem with the tasting notes for Ashton Hills’ Piccadilly Vineyard Chardonnay, which sets the scene for this remarkable wine. It’s a best barrel selection from a chosen two of the three source vineyards in the high altitude district of the Adelaide Hills, and simply put, it’s more of everything: deeper fruit, spicier oak, though still deftly balanced, and more intense yellow grapefruit acidity in support to all the flavour that can be mustered out of elite Chardonnay. This is high quality through and through, with a pinpoint understanding of the variety in its modern era."

Tony Love (Winepilot)

"There’s some lovely aromatics going on here: just-ripe white stone fruit, white lily, grilled nuts, melon rind and a whiff of nougat. Textured and mouth-filling, with a drive of pithy, tangy grapefruit, nectarine and nutty oak. There’s plenty of snappy acidity and the length is impressive. Very smart gear."

Aaron Brasher (The Real Review)

"The subtle nature of the wine is a charm, soft texture, licked at by honey butter and nougat sweet-savouriness, an undertow of red apple, nectarine, slate-like minerality and a cooling thread of brine/saline inflection. It's got reserve and restraint written into its lore, a distinct finesse, a pleasing persistence. There's something relaxed and broadly inviting to the wine, too. Proper stuff."

Mike Bennie (Halliday Wine Companion)

"This chardonnay saves its best to last. It starts off restrained and finishes with a powerful, compelling burst. It tastes of tonic water and lemonade, preserved citrus fruits and pears, with grapefruit, cedar, peach and flint as helping hands. It’s as delicious as it is sophisticated; it reveals something extra each time you return. Over coming years it will only get better."

Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

"Very pale, almost watercoloured. Some translation to perfume and palate, which also appear a little mute, but not without refreshment factor. Lime in mineral water, diffuse green-apple juice characters, a touch of frisky brine, a splash of pink grapefruity tang through the finish. It feels very shy on opening, but its restraint may also be the primary appeal for some. A delicate wine, is the message."

Mike Bennie (Halliday Wine Companion)

"No introduction needed to the reputation of Ashton Hills when it comes to Pinot Noir pedigree, based on their set of three mainstays, a Reserve and Estate iterations from the home block estate high in the Adelaide Hills in Ashton on the northern edges of the Piccadilly Valley, as well as wider-vineyard sourcing for a Piccadilly Valley variation. Occasional single vineyard makes also add to the portfolio. This Estate is emblematic of South Australia’s finest Pinot producer, multi-clonal vinified separately before a final blend, 25% whole bunch pressed and fermented, matured for nine months in 14% new barriques. The nose is immediately captivated, earthy bush florals and leaf, middle eastern spice fragrance, bay leaf before flowing easily into a neatly structured palate, fluid, gently built, darker, faintly sour cherry, with a fruit-sweet rise in the finish, the slightest of amaro bitters threaded into its tannin lilt at the exit. The identity of this iconic vineyard for all to see now, with potential to develop more earthy notes in the next decade. (The Reserve ($115) is a barrel selection with a bit more oak on show at release.)"

Tony Love (Winepilot)

"A blend of five different clones, wild fermented separately, then blended for our pleasure after nine months in mostly older French oak barrels. This has some meatiness and flesh but also a cool undercurrent of briny and slate-like mineral qualities, quite distinct in the wine. Dark cherry and wild raspberry also flow through, so too some caraway seed spice and savouriness, a touch of hazelnut and clove. Rosehip tea makes a mark, too, and, indeed, tea-like tannins stretch long and fine through the wine. It makes its mark with some understatement and refreshment factor. Elegance, yet quiet power."

Mike Bennie (Halliday Wine Companion)

"Red cherry, red rose, strawberry, banana skin, cinnamon quill. Some earthy tones, but bright and fresh at its core. Steely, juicy and lifted on the palate with pretty red fruits and spice — red cherry and red rose again, ground nutmeg, mashed strawberry. Some firmness to fine tannins through a finish of solid length. There's a touch of Pinot-like character here, for better or worse, but the Gamay tones do prevail. A lovely wine."

Tom Kline (Winepilot)

"I like the juiciness of this, the balance, the extension. It’s driven by strawberry and red cherry flavours with sweet spice and musk-like accents. There’s an apple-like aspect to the acidity, and a push of juicy flavour through the finish. It’s been nicely judged texturally as well. I liked this wine from every angle but, at the same time, couldn’t quite get excited by it. Probably just me. It’s perfectly balanced, juicy with flavour, structured and clean as a whistle."

Campbell Mattinson (The Wine Front)

"There's a good sense of levity and finesse to this wine. Almost 'blink and you'll miss it', in a way. Soft red-cherry fruitiness, some barely there wild raspberry, a touch of rosehip tea. You could project a little spice and dried herbs into things, too, but it is very primary, fruity and pure in its personality. A little feathery grip of tannin makes landfall. A very gentle wine, perhaps a touch too elementary, but in the right direction, and easy to get stuck into."

Mike Bennie (Halliday Wine Companion)

“Sourced from a vineyard in the central Adelaide Hills district of Woodside, everything about this wine screams the lighter and brighter personality of the Gamay grape as it gains increasing traction as a regional variety to watch - and drink with an equally buoyant mindset. Wild yeast ferment, 25% whole bunches included, a portion going to carbonic maceration to lift its fragrant elements. Crimson fruits, almond kernel, cherry danish pastry, light Aperol-like edges, white pepper - a skip through a joyful spectrum of flavours - with a soft textural feathering in the finish. Smiles all round.”

Tony Love (Winepilot)