Shaw & Smith Lenswood Vineyard Chardonnay 2024

96 POINTS

Tom Kline - Winepilot

The Lenswood vineyard was planted in 1999 and sits at 455–500m elevation. This was hand-picked and hand-sorted, gently whole-bunch pressed, then fermented in 500-litre puncheons, 30% new. Full malo and 10 months in oak. This is intense and immediate in its perfume with red apple flesh, fine cedar, flint and lees-derived pastry dough leading to grilled almond and white peach. There’s some cinnamon apple and peach skin with air. The palate is at once precise and expansive — white peach and powdery red apple flesh followed by cinnamon roll, finger lime and a shot of salinity before crackling acidity and powdery phenolics ripple and shimmer through a long, poised and incredibly fresh finish. A classy wine, imbued with freshness, complexity and definition.

95 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2024 Lenswood Vineyard Chardonnay leads with crushed nuts and white flowers, fresh sage leaf and brine. In the mouth, the wine is elegant, restrained and pithy. The acidity rears up through the finish, and while it feels a little taut, perhaps even edging toward acerbic, it works within the overall structure and line of the wine. I find the fruit character here to be extremely pleasing: it is light yet yellow-fruited, spicy without being heavy and layered without feeling cumbersome. This is excellent. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. The 2024 season in the Adelaide Hills was characterized by a cool and wet spring and end of 2023, with a warm and dry growing season from late January onward. There was some disease pressure around the place, however the warmth and dryness of the 2024 summer assisted in eradicating some of these challenges. The wines have been exceptional, from what I have seen, and I continue to look forward to more as they are released. The Lenswood vineyard is at an elevation of 500 meters and was planted in 2001 on loam over clay and shale soils. The vineyard is oriented east-facing, with Bernard clones 76, 95 and 96, at a density of 4,760 vines per hectare.