The World’s Finest Chardonnay Comes from Tasmania

Hundreds of wines are tasted and graded yearly on the Worldwide Wine Problem (IWC). At this 12 months’s contest, the top-awarded Chardonnay took house probably the most factors of any wine.

Tolpuddle Winery, a beloved winery in Tasmania, Australia, earned 98 factors for its 2023 Chardonnay and secured the Champion White Wine and Worldwide Chardonnay trophies — together with awards for the very best Tasmanian Chardonnay, Australian Chardonnay, and an total Australian white wine trophy. After a blind tasting of greater than 1,000 wines, judges described the bottle as “compelling and addictive.”

“That is each ethereal and assured, a fancy wine, alluring and demanding consideration,” IWC judges be aware. “Wealthy but taut, deep but supremely elegant, providing superbly built-in spice notes and funky fruit.”

The famend winery additionally gained the highest Chardonnay award in 2020 for its 2018 classic, marking the final time an Australian wine took house that honor. The vineyard has been producing wine since 1988 in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley. The area is understood for a cool, dry local weather that produces high-acid bottles, that are common with many wine lovers, in keeping with the Tolpuddle’s proprietor, Michael Hill-Smith. “It has actual perspective within the glass,” he says. “It’s quiet but highly effective with traditional Tasmanian acidity and swagger.”

Chardonnay is without doubt one of the hottest varietals and the world’s most generally planted grape. Though it originated within the Burgundy area of France and has been cultivated there for hundreds of years, IWC judges have lately acknowledged different areas, with a New Zealand bottle successful the highest trophy final 12 months and a South African vineyard successful in 2023. Sommeliers additionally say they’re seeing different areas like Australia achieve traction on wine lists.

“There’s rising curiosity in Australian Chardonnay,” Rob Colomb, basic supervisor and sommelier of Ceiba in Orlando, says. “Burgundy demand is climbing, and as folks search for alternate options, areas like Tasmania are getting into the highlight.”

Amy Racine, the beverage director of JF Eating places in New York Metropolis, was impressed when she visited Tolpuddle Winery about 15 years in the past and notes that Australian Chardonnay has “modified dramatically over the previous decade.”

“Each wine I tasted there was unbelievable. It’s about time they acquired some recognition,” she says. “The cool local weather of Tasmania makes for beautiful lean, exact Chardonnay that stands other than the larger kinds folks typically affiliate with Australia.”

Evan White, wine director at Houston’s Bludorn, acknowledges that there’ll at all times be dedication to a lauded area like Burgundy, however shoppers shouldn’t overlook Australia — and this latest IWC award proves that. “Burghounds are a lot more durable to persuade,” White says. “However the very best Australian Chardonnays I’ve tried completely rival these from Burgundy.”