97 POINTS
Marcus Ellis - Halliday Wine Companion
55/17/17/7/4% grenache blanc/grenache gris/roussanne/clairette/bourboulenc. Some grenache blanc and roussanne was fermented on skins for around seven months (47% of the finished blend). The remaining fruit was basket pressed. Texture. For me, it’s the defining point of this wine. Oh, I love the hard-to-pin-down flavours that drift through orchard fruits and citrus, suggest a piney and briny herbal note – like a sea breeze gliding through a cypress tree – and are further complexed with a hint of cracked fennel seed and white pepper. But it’s the texture that really elevates this, the frisson of pumiceous (it’s a word …) grip and succulent fruit, the sapid, mineral/tonic quality, the elegant tensioning, fine-tuned to perfection. What a delight.
96 POINTS
Shanteh Wale - Winepilot
Some wines transcend their varietal makeup. While the technical details—winemaking choices, percentages, élevage—may matter to some, they dissolve entirely in the sheer experience of tasting. This is one of those wines. As I sit with it now, the specifics fade, and what remains is the ethereal bliss of an exceptional white. Notes of pineapple core, nashi pear, and starfruit emerge first. Yellow fruit pulp, dry sand, and pumpkin shells seem to scatter across the floor. There’s also a savoury edge—wholewheat flour, hay, and fennel seed.The palate delivers, not just in fruit, but in complexity—olive brine salinity and the savouriness of pickled winter melon elevate this from a simple sipping wine to a perfect pairing for poached chicken, pork rillettes, or three-cheese ravioli. The acidity, though a passenger to the driving fruit, carries enough energy to keep the wine bright and vibrant from start to finish. Some kernel texture ensures that it will age well over the next 3-5 years as well.
94 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2023 Ovitelli Blanc leads with dried flowers and crushed seashells, brine, nashi pear, fennel seed and elderflower. In the mouth, the wine is lean and detailed, with shades of cool metal, wet stone and dried lavender. As usual, the sway of bitter almond, lanolin, white pepper and saltbush feathers the edges of perception. This is a detailed wine that gives little hints as to the fatter profile of some of the varieties, but it does not at any point give in and expand. This is tightly trussed from beginning to end, with the flavor given no choice but to extend out way into the long finish. It's a superb wine, but I'd be inclined to suggest you decant it, to allow it to gain some amplitude prior to drinking. The higher pH and lower total acidity contribute to the inherent softness of the wine and drive home the extent of the phenolic impact. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. The blend is Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Claudette and Bourboulenc, all picked and sorted separately. The Grenache Blanc and Roussanne were kept on skins in Clayver ceramic egg for seven months, everything else was basket pressed and fermented exclusively in ceramic egg, then blended and matured for a further four months in ceramic prior to bottling. It spent 12 months in bottle prior to release.
93 POINTS
Angus Hughson - Vinous
The 2023 Ovitelli Blanc is a blend of Grenache Blanc, Grenache Gris, Roussanne, Clairette and Bourboulenc. This is quite enchanting in a finer, detailed style as it builds aromas of citrus, honeysuckle and acacia. The 2023 is fresh and composed with some serious acidity which is well matched to layers of tight flavor, accented by an attractive bite of skin tannins before building into a long, seamless finish. This confident release was enhanced by the cooler growing season.
92 POINTS
Tom Kline - Winepilot
Quite the blend: 25% Grenache Blanc, 25% Clairette, 22% Piquepoul, 18% Bourboulenc, 10% Grenache Gris. All hand-picked and pressed independently, with fine free-run juice separated before fermentation in tank, then transferred to old French oak hogsheads and barriques. Matured on lees for seven months before blending. Very well put together, as one might expect from the deft hand of the late Peter Fraser. Delicate aromas of peach kernel, golden delicious apple, Meyer lemon, peach blossom, honeysuckle and gentle toasted almond. Fresh and bright with just enough lift to draw you in. The palate is textural but carries that brightness through: peach, yellow apple and Meyer lemon again, with delicate roasted nuts and almond meal. There’s grip to the sides adding an edge of attractive bitterness, and a gentle wash of acidity pulling to a finish of length and freshness. Pleasingly soft and gentle while still bright. Lovely release and great value at $27.
92 POINTS
Shanteh Wale - Winepilot
This season’s blend is made up of 25% Grenache Blanc, 25% Clariette, 22% Piquepoul, 18% Bourboulenc, 8% Roussanne and 2% Grenache Gris. Once again another harmonious wine, how as winemaker you don’t get lost amongst those percentages, I’ll never know because this wine feels effortless in its fresh, zippy attitude and harmonious acid line. This is one very crisp and crunchy drink, with some creamy almond milk richness and a stony finish. Plenty to keep you coming back for more. Drink now with fresh oozy cheeses and basil oil, with bread for mopping it all up. Shanteh Wale Contributor at Wine Companion Shanteh cut her teeth at Sydney’s Award-Winning Quay restaurant where she worked for over a decade and was Head Sommelier from 2018 till 2022. She has been nominated for the Good Food Guide Sommelier of the Year award on three occasions and claims that her experience as a Len Evans scholar as one of the highlights of her career. Shanteh hosts her own weekly podcast ‘Over A Glass’ with the Deep in the Weeds Network and spends her time writing for various publications and judging at numerous wine shows across the country. Wine journalism podcasting host
A fruit-driven, Rhone-style white blend with aromas of lemon peel, grapefruit pith and orange blossoms. The palate is medium-bodied with focused acidity and a phenolic grip, showing notes of lime zest, honeydew melon and green apples. A blend of 25% grenache blanc, 25% clairette, 22% piquepoul blanc, 18% bourboulenc, 8% roussanne and 2% grenache gris.
91 POINTS
Matt Walls - Decanter
Gently perfumed, with white flowers and almond. Full-bodied – but only just – this is gently textural. Lovely, quite sharp, angular acidity, then finishing on subtle lemon bitters. Has character and freshness. Lemon flower finish. A blend of 25% Grenache Blanc, 25% Clairette, 22% Picpoul Blanc, 18% Bourboulenc, 8% Roussanne and 2% Grenache Gris. Fermented in old French oak hogsheads and barriques. Matured for six months on the lees.
