Tolpuddle Vineyard Chardonnay 2025

97 POINTS

Tom Kline - Winepilot

A good winter of rain in 2025, on the long-term average, set things up well; warmish flowering brought a strong fruit set, well-timed rain worked its magic through the Coal River Valley, and a mild summer followed – overall cooler than 2024 on the data, delivering good yields and quality. This is a wine that has, since Tolpuddle’s first release in 2013, become one of the benchmarks for Australian Chardonnay – taut, mineral, and precise in a way few sites in the country can match. There’s such allure to the perfume as the wine relaxes in the glass. Cashew cream and white flowers hover above pure and precise fruit – white peach, salted grapefruit, preserved lemon, makrut lime. There’s some saline oyster shell minerality and whispers of fine cedar bringing savoury complexity. The trademark flinty reduction permeates but not aggressively at this stage of the wine’s life. On the palate, there’s both power and precision with a lovely creamy texture cut up by tensile saline acidity and chalky phenolic drive. The fruit notes mirror the nose, carried very long with that classic Tolpuddle crystalline drive and some preserved lemon brininess drenching the close with salinity. Top flight Tolpuddle Chardonnay here. Power and precision in equal measure, and a balance that will see it age brilliantly.

97 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday Wine Companion

Tight and intricately detailed, as always, with bright citrus, peach and white nectarine fruits overseen by a mist of flint and struck-match complexity. Hints of grilled hazelnuts, almond butter, vanillin oak, clover blossom, crushed riverstone, crème fraîche, ozone, oatmeal and sea spray. Lightly textural, with a beautiful taut mineral line, the flavours precise and drawn out along its length. This has a tight mineral cadence, a touch of apple-skin pithiness, preserved lemon, nougat and a pristine, sustained finish with a flair of umami. This is a producer and a site that is in the finest of form. No wonder the French are nervous – once again, world-class Australian chardonnay.

96 POINTS

Jeni Port - Winepilot

The Tolpuddle Vineyard, south of Hobart, has a long history dating back to 1988. In 2011, under new owners Michael Hill-Smith and Martin Shaw, it has taken a major step towards putting Tasmanian Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on the world stage. A good ’25 vintage, dry with above average temperatures, has produced a deeply complex young Chardonnay. Arrives in richly detailed aromas in yellow peach, nectarine, hints of guava, lemon curd with a cashew-rich nuttiness. A tightly-coiled and thrilling wine, sunny and bright and more-ish. The palate is well composed, integrated and seamless, in whole sways of citrus, stone fruits joined by almond meal, biscuit, pineapple skin with a finely nuanced ribbon of vanillin oak. There is much more to build upon as it starts its journey. Give it time.

95 POINTS

Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

MB and I visited the Tolpuddle cellar door back in September 2025, and it’s a very well run and fancy experience. The 2022 Chardonnay was my standout wine on that day, and we tasted the 2018, 2023 and 2024 as well from nice big glasses. Anyway, 2025 now, soon to be released I believe. As ever with Tolpuddle it’s a tight and racy wine, offering savoury nuance, plenty of flint and struck match, a saline oyster shell character, spicy cinnamon oak, fennel, and a bright and tangy acid bite. It’s not huge on flavour, but does have a lime, white peach and green olive and a little creamy almond richness. The finish is bright and long, with citrus rind and a quinine bite to close. It’s a style that will tickle the fancy of many, for sure. It builds some weight with time in the glass, so I’d suggest there’s a fair bit more to come here once it settles into bottle.