JAMES’ HALLIDAY’S REVIEW: Richard McIntyre has taken Moorooduc Estate to new heights, having completely mastered the difficult art of gaining maximum results from wild yeast fermentation. Starting with the 2010 vintage, there was a complete revamp of grape sources, and hence changes to the tiered structure of the releases. These changes were driven by the simple fact that the estate vineyards had no possibility of providing the 5000-6000 dozen bottles of wine sold each year. The entry point wines under the Devil Bend Creek label remain, as before, principally sourced from the Osborn Vineyard. The mid-priced Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are no longer single-estate vineyard wines, and are now simply labelled by vintage and variety. Next come the Robinson Vineyard Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, elevated to reserve wine status, priced a little below the ultimate ?Ducs’ (The Moorooduc McIntyre).

On the nose it has intense grapefruit and lime notes with some lemon butter, salted rice crackers, oats and a touch of white nectarine. Zesty, with great minerality throughout the core. A delicious chardonnay!