2022 Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay

98 POINTS

Jane Faulkner - Halliday's Wine Companion

It’s been a joy to watch the evolution of Heytesbury over the past decade or so, as it’s one of the great Australian chardonnays. Whatever vintage conditions have thrown at it, and with tweaks along the way, the nucleus remains steadfast: quality, excellent fruit and a second-to-none level of detail in the winemaking. This is an evocative wine. Pristine and sublime. Funky sulphides rockin’ it while a gossamer thread of acidity holds everything in line – the citrus flavours, the texture, the wine totally enveloping the oak and, while it’s a powerhouse of flavour, there’s a purity to this. It’s such a contrast. How does it achieve that?

98 POINTS

James Suckling

A dense and structured white with white peaches, honeysuckle, lemon tree, and hints lime. Full-bodied with a gorgeous center palate and intense and lively finish. So wild and energetic. Wonderful depth and focus. Drink or hold. Can age beautifully. Think where it will be

98 POINTS

Andrew Caillard MW - The Vintage Journal

Pale colour. Lovely intense grapefruit, grilled nut, marzipan, vanilla aromas and flavours. Taught yet sinuous in structure with ample grapefruits and limes, underlying tonic water, grilled nut flavours, fine lacy textures, superb mid-palate volume and fresh high pitched indelible acidity. A thoroughbred of remarkable richness and torque. A beautifully focused and classic Margaret River Chardonnay showing off the fidelity of the Gin Gin Clone and precision vineyard sourcing. Drink now – 2032

97 POINTS

Huon Hooke - The Real Review

Light-mid yellow colour with a butterscotch overtone to the complex bouquet, toasted nuts, shortbread and rich sweet-fruit middle palate within a taut and disciplined framework. Tremendous line and length: the finish reverberates for a long time. A quite magnificent chardonnay. It's offering more at this tender age than the usual super-reserved Heytesbury.

93 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

I don’t know whether it’s a strange thing to say, but I always think that VF Heytesbury is the benchmark for ‘Modern Australian Chardonnay’, and maybe that over Margaret River character. Plenty of tension here, struck match, spicy cinnamon oak, lime and pear, cashew and almond. It’s zesty and tangy in acidity, grapefruit and spice, a saline/seaweed character, a gentle toffee richness, chalk dust texture, and a creamy yet zesty finish of sharp feel and fine length. Bony, cool feel, but very good

Jancis Robinson MW

Hand-harvested. Whole-bunch pressed. Spontaneous fermentation in barrel with very high solids. Average 553 NTU. Aged 9 months in French oak, of which 56% new. Six months in tank after blending. TA 6.8 g/l, pH 3.14. Bottled June 2022 but not released until October 2022. Winemaker Virginia Willcock always worries about how fruity the wine tastes (what she referred to as 'devastating fruit) for the first 6–12 months after bottling, before it starts to show its more savoury, smoky/mineral qualities. She would like to keep the wine longer before release but they are always sold out of this wine for around 6 months of the year. This vintage is likely to be released in the first few months of 2023. Beautifully and discreetly spiced by the oak with – at the moment – very little struck-match sulphidic character, though it shows a little more with aeration. Marked mineral stone-dust character even with all this youthful fruit. Extremely tight, not lean, but textured, with a chalky feel. Crisp, bone dry, the citrus a little sweet-sour on the finish for now but already showing that lovely creamy texture, just. As it warms and opens in the glass, and going back to this after the older vintages in the line-up, the fruit is really intense, more tropical but still shot through with lime. It would be a great shame to drink this too young. (JH) 13% Drink 2024 – 2033.