Reviews
Chardonnay Pinot Syrah Gewurztraminer
2021 “Appellation” Chardonnay
This has the intensity to satisfy but really it’s about the line and then the length. Cool nectarine, cooked apple, nashi pear and sweet herb notes come run through with hay, cedar, wet concrete and (as whispers) fennel. It doesn’t yet have a great deal of flesh but it will build it; already it feels incredibly seamless and composed. Leave this alone for a couple of years, it’s on its way to a beautiful place.
Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
93+ points
2019 “Appellation” Chardonnay
Shaun Crinion of Dappled is under a fair amount of pressure to increase his prices – from various quarters – though he remains committed to keeping them as low as he possibly can. The prices will no doubt have to increase soon but they don’t offer extraordinary value for money by accident; Crinion is determined to keep them as accessible as possible. Personally I wish there were more winemakers like him. This is another stellar release. It’s a wine of sheer quality, hands down. Flint, matchstick funk, pure nectarine-grapefruit-and-white-peach fruit, a ginger-like note and a smokiness through the finish. It has tremendous length and it feels uncompromised all the way along. Yes it’s flinty/funky but within that style it’s tremendous. And with air it just gets better.
Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
95+ points
2018 Single Vineyard “Les Verges” Yarra Valley
This gives the box of matches of a right old nudge but importantly it has fruit flavour and length in spades. It’s quite terrifically good. Stonefruits, toffee apples, lime leaves, grapefruit, so much spent match, steel and sweet, toasted cedar. You have to like the funk, for sure. But in that context it’s a blinder.
Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
96 points
From Seville. Hand-picked, cooled overnight, foot-stomped, then a long press straight to oak, wild ferment, no batonnage, 10 months on lees plus 5 months in tank, bottled by gravity. Lovely chardonnay. 97 points
James Halliday
97 points
2018 “Appellation” Yarra Valley Chardonnay
It might be the best $30 you can spend in wine right now.
Beautifully packaged, beautifully styled, beautifully flavoured. Complex, smoky, ripe, flinty, pure and long. It has much going on, but the recommendation is simple. Matchsticks flung in the direction of grapefruit and peaches. A gentle, gentle milky-creaminess. Just so good.
Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
95 points
Upper and lower Yarra fruit, hand-picked, cooled, whole bunch lightly crushed before long pressing, unsulphured to French oak (20% new), wild-fermented with no temperature control, no batonnage, on lees for 10 months. Takes shape like a complex knitting pattern.
James Halliday
95 points
2017 Single Vineyard “Champs de Cerises” Upper Yarra Chardonnay
Dappled don’t seem to put a foot wrong. A star. This is from a site in Macclesfield, Yarra Valley. Natural ferment, larger format oak of which 25% is new. Left alone largely. Bottled. For your pleasure.
This is a wine that invites you back for more. Cinnamon and clove spice over green melon and pulpy grapefruit – bouquet and palate. Flinty mineral characters zinging through the primary fruit detail, the wine draws long and to a tight, squeaky finish. It’s loaded with charm, precision and leaner but well-drawn chardonnay characters. Yes thanks.
Mike Bennie, Winefront
94 points
Clones 76 and 96 from a single vineyard. The same vinification as Appellation Yarra Valley except for 25% new oak and more time on lees. This welds stone fruit and citrus into a single stream of flavour as the heart of the wine. Finesse with power, length with delicacy. Screwcap. 13% alc. Rating 96 To 2023
James Halliday
96 points
2017 “Appellation” Yarra Valley Chardonnay
The Dappled range goes from strength to strength.
Hit. Bang on. Pear, apple, honeysuckle and grapefruit with a steely, spicy ring through the finish. Cutting and fleshy at once. Pulpy, you’d almost say. Fresh, long and zippy but with varietal expression clear throughout. Another year in bottle won’t hurt it.
Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
94 points
Clones 76, 95, P58 and I10V1. Hand-picked, whole bunches lightly crushed by foot then a long pressing straight to oak (20% new barriques, puncheons and demi-muids), wild-fermented, no temperature control, no stirring, matured for 10 months on lees, SO2 ‘when the wine is ready for it’. Bright, light straw-green. Elegant. A lively palate: juicy and communicative, spring day freshness. Screwcap. 13% alc. Rating 95 To 2029
James Halliday
95 points
2016 “Appellation” Yarra Valley Chardonnay
It’s pretty clear by now that Dappled is an out-and-out star producer. One of the very best. The value is extraordinary but quality is the main take-home. There won’t be any single vineyard wines produced by Dappled out of the Yarra Valley from 2016 – kudos. If you’re in the market for chardonnay then this is fill your boots territory. It’s so fine, so complex, so seamless. It has intensity of flavour and texture both, but in neither respect is it overt or overdone. It all just feels and flows naturally. Stonefruits, fresh and delicious, a run of spices, a clip of wood. A mealy character, almost into matchsticks, hovers without ever quite descending. It’s a picture of elegance and restraint, but not self-consciously so, and is every bit satisfying. A beautiful wine.
Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
94 points
2015 "Appellation" Yarra Valley Chardonnay
Look, if you like chardonnay, go and buy some of this. It’s just a gorgeous drink. Essence of chardonnay. A bit of funk, a bit of cool length, a lot of flavour, a lot of class. It’s sourced partly from the Upper Yarra and you can tell; there are green apple and chalk notes, almost into citrus, here. But then there’s white peach and grapefruit too, combined with almond meal and dried/candied fruits, and an all-round juicy drinkability. One sip, bang, you’re hooked. You simply cannot go wrong. Love it.
Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
94 points
An exquisitely sculpted wine of magic, its magic lying as much in what it doesn’t say as in what it does – a perfect union of stone and citrus fruit, acidity and oak.
James Halliday
97 points
2015 Single Vineyard "La Petanque" - Mornington Peninsula Chardonnay
Almond meal, spice, slight whiff of struck match, nectarine; it almost tricks you into thinking you might have a softy on your hands, but it fairly zings with firm grapefruity flavour and acidity, though that softening cover of almond takes the edges off, somewhat. It’s chalky and flinty, very direct, and long through the finish. You have to like them firm in the acid department, and it has an almost Riesling-like intensity, but there’s no doubt that it’s a very good wine. Needs a little more time in bottle to relax.
Gary Walsh, Winefront
93 points
If I were a Mornington Peninsula chardonnay winemaker, I would be shying away from the challenge to my raison d'être. This uncompromising purity (no mlf) is apt to take no prisoners.
James Halliday
95 points
2015 Single Vineyard "Swallowfield" - Upper Yarra Chardonnay
This wine is long and lean but it also has presence and command. In the glass right now you could argue that it looks slightly disjointed, but only in the sense that it’s still waiting for its arms and legs to line up. They will. It tastes of slate and oatmeal, bacony oak, grapefruit and lemon. Stonefruit flavours have a slight greenness to them, but nothing that won’t come out in the wash of time.
Campbell Mattinson, Winefront
92+ points
This has a very complex bouquet, and an equally complex palate; new French oak and a fearless early picking approach have a hologram-like impact, ever shifting around a spear of pink grapefruit. Unexpectedly, it came second on a recount to the Appellation Yarra Valley Chardonnay.