Pierro VR Chardonnay 2022

In Mike's words -  "The thing is with wine you only have one chance each year to refine and improve what you do. This also demands a careful balance between tradition and change. So it can take many years to build a body of knowledge. I first made Chardonnay in 1980 and I hope this wine expresses the 40 years of accumulated experience and heritage. We have matured this wine for 4 years in bottle for you and it is ready to drink now. It will also continue to age gracefully for a further 6 years if cellared in cool conditions at 14-16 degrees."  Mike Peterkin 

Critics thoughts - The Pierro VR Chardonnay is the last premium Chardonnay of the region to be released each year. It's not released every year, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad about that. I respect the decision to only highlight suitable/excellent years, but I do wish it was a mainstay. The 2022 Vintage Reserve Chardonnay is everything I hope it would be. It is nutty, complex, profoundly weighty and powerful, with chamomile flowers (I feel this is the vintage shining through), yellow fruit and exceptional length. This is one of the most magnificent Chardonnays in Australia.  98 Points - Erin Larkin - The Wine Advocate 

100% gin-gin clone. 100% malolactic. 100% Pierro.  Lime, pear, biscuity clove and ginger oak, floral too. It’s powerful with plenty of flavour, pine-lime and melon, nutty and creamy with a honey gloss, a powdery and flinty grip to texture, bright citrus acidity, some savoury oak influence, with a soaring finish of superb length. It’s ripe but has freshness, balance and energy. So impressive. Margaret River power in full flight.  97 points -Gary Walsh - The Wine Front

'Pierro always holds back a little of the current release chardonnay, for later release, which is great because it pushes you into a wine that's entering its ideal drinking zone, and the cellaring is done for you. This was always an outstanding wine, and it captures so much of the Pierro style, perhaps leaning more toward the modern evolution of the last 10 years. It’s crunchy and vibrant, with tremendous depth and intensity of fruit and a long, precise finish. This is classically Margaret River and delivered with polish.'  97 Points - Ray Jordan