Chardonnay from Margaret River can be among the world’s finest, yet the intensity of the fruit often surpasses expressions from elsewhere to the point of overload, akin to peaches and cream, truffle and toasted hazelnut. Too much of a good thing, perhaps. After a long day of tasting, I pine for something more understated, savory, fresh and lithe – in essence, less of a winemaker’s wine.
During a recent stint in the tasting room, I came across the Windows Estate Semillon Margaret River Petit Lot 2021 from the Yallingup subzone of Margaret River, northwest of the better known Wilyabrup. Texturally, the wine is a confluence of fractured laterite soils and maritime essence, born of assiduous organic viticulture and gravelly loam underlain by clay. Gently salty, dutifully fresh, but attractively phenolic, too. The vineyard is planted to a north-south exposure, serving to mitigate excessive sunlight and UV, while retaining a skein of juicy, natural acidity.
While the intensity of fruit and pimiento spice is undeniably of region, the elevage in older wood and clay confers breadth and savoriness, impressing a Graves-like mien of anise, hedgerow and yellow plum. Cool of aura, layered and sublimely long, this is a wine for the sophisticate as much as a drink for those who want four glasses rather than one. Delicious gear!
– Ned Goodwin MW, Senior Editor
