2022 Penfolds Bin 144 Yattarna Chardonnay
Tyson Stelzer's Top 250 Wines 2024
98 points, Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot
"This latest release is one of the finest Yattarna’s I have seen. A world class, stunning Chardonnay, which hails from a range of regions – Tumbarumba, Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills. The wine sees eight months maturation in French oak barriques, 44% new. A lemon straw colour here, there is exemplary balance, with impeccable refinement. The nose gives us touches of cinnamon and nutmeg – the merest whiff, as the oak integration is so superb – with florals, citrus, spices, ginger, lemon butter and glacéd limes. There is a fine line of bracing acidity, but it is elegance personified. The structure is textbook and the wine finishes with notes of honeycomb and almonds. We have power, intensity and a wonderfully persistent finish. There is surely twelve to twenty years in front of this cracking wine."
98 points, Colin Hay, The Drinks Business
"The 26th vintage of this, Penfolds’ increasingly iconic Chardonnay, made with precisely the same attention to detail and vineyard and parcel selection process as Grange. A fabulous follow-up to the sublime 2021. Aromatically beautiful and sublime in its complexity, each return to the glass revealing new elements. Lime and lime zest, grapefruit and fennel seed, hay, tarte au citron and lemon sorbet. A little white floral note. Elderflower. Lily of the valley. Much more limpid still, than Bin 311 or Reserve Black A. Fluid. Lithe. Fleshy but hyper-crystalline. On the palate, this is so tight and precise, highly structured and very focussed, rapier-like. I love the little touch of iodine and oyster shell that I’ve noticed before with Yattarna, a hint of white pepper too. Very refined, almost delicate. Gorgeous texturally and wonderfully tactile, with a playful and captivating acidity. This tapers gently on the finish with each grip of the acidity, supported by a gentle hint of tannin, releasing plumes of sapid juiciness. The top white here by some distance, but an Everest amongst Himalayan peaks."
98 points, Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
"The 2022 Yattarna Chardonnay comprises fruit from Tumbarumba (61%), Tasmania (particularly Coal River Valley, 26%) and the balance from the Adelaide Hills. This wine ages slowly and gracefully, and I love it for that. The phenolics frame a powerful core of fruit that is at once streamlined and wide. It blankets the mouth and persists long after the wine is gone. At this stage, it feels inchoate in its development: tiny fish hooks of texture and a frisky sort of acid line both indicate that the wine has some time to go before it fully realizes its potential. This is forever the blue-chip investment in this collection for my taste, and there is a perpetually seamless cohesion of malolactic fermentation into the wine. The Yattarna is fully inoculated with estate-developed yeast strains, built in conjunction over time with the AWRI. It has 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.11 and 6.8 grams per liter of total acidity, and it matured for eight months in French barriques (44% new). Drink: 2024 - 2042."
94 points Tyson Stelzer
One of the best of recent vintages in Tumbarumba has elevated this to the majority composition of Yattarna and the highest proportion of the blend yet. I love its tension and focus, eminently coiled, backward and crunchy even at more than three years of age. Almost ripe fig, white peach and beurre bosc pear are the themes, well framed in the creamy demeanour and supple texture of eminently supportive French oak fermentation. There is an impressive core of fruit presence, tensioned with fully ripe yet impressively energetic acid line that carries a long and enduring finish.
Tyson Stelzer's Top 250 Wines 2024
98 points, Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot
"This latest release is one of the finest Yattarna’s I have seen. A world class, stunning Chardonnay, which hails from a range of regions – Tumbarumba, Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills. The wine sees eight months maturation in French oak barriques, 44% new. A lemon straw colour here, there is exemplary balance, with impeccable refinement. The nose gives us touches of cinnamon and nutmeg – the merest whiff, as the oak integration is so superb – with florals, citrus, spices, ginger, lemon butter and glacéd limes. There is a fine line of bracing acidity, but it is elegance personified. The structure is textbook and the wine finishes with notes of honeycomb and almonds. We have power, intensity and a wonderfully persistent finish. There is surely twelve to twenty years in front of this cracking wine."
98 points, Colin Hay, The Drinks Business
"The 26th vintage of this, Penfolds’ increasingly iconic Chardonnay, made with precisely the same attention to detail and vineyard and parcel selection process as Grange. A fabulous follow-up to the sublime 2021. Aromatically beautiful and sublime in its complexity, each return to the glass revealing new elements. Lime and lime zest, grapefruit and fennel seed, hay, tarte au citron and lemon sorbet. A little white floral note. Elderflower. Lily of the valley. Much more limpid still, than Bin 311 or Reserve Black A. Fluid. Lithe. Fleshy but hyper-crystalline. On the palate, this is so tight and precise, highly structured and very focussed, rapier-like. I love the little touch of iodine and oyster shell that I’ve noticed before with Yattarna, a hint of white pepper too. Very refined, almost delicate. Gorgeous texturally and wonderfully tactile, with a playful and captivating acidity. This tapers gently on the finish with each grip of the acidity, supported by a gentle hint of tannin, releasing plumes of sapid juiciness. The top white here by some distance, but an Everest amongst Himalayan peaks."
98 points, Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
"The 2022 Yattarna Chardonnay comprises fruit from Tumbarumba (61%), Tasmania (particularly Coal River Valley, 26%) and the balance from the Adelaide Hills. This wine ages slowly and gracefully, and I love it for that. The phenolics frame a powerful core of fruit that is at once streamlined and wide. It blankets the mouth and persists long after the wine is gone. At this stage, it feels inchoate in its development: tiny fish hooks of texture and a frisky sort of acid line both indicate that the wine has some time to go before it fully realizes its potential. This is forever the blue-chip investment in this collection for my taste, and there is a perpetually seamless cohesion of malolactic fermentation into the wine. The Yattarna is fully inoculated with estate-developed yeast strains, built in conjunction over time with the AWRI. It has 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.11 and 6.8 grams per liter of total acidity, and it matured for eight months in French barriques (44% new). Drink: 2024 - 2042."
94 points Tyson Stelzer
One of the best of recent vintages in Tumbarumba has elevated this to the majority composition of Yattarna and the highest proportion of the blend yet. I love its tension and focus, eminently coiled, backward and crunchy even at more than three years of age. Almost ripe fig, white peach and beurre bosc pear are the themes, well framed in the creamy demeanour and supple texture of eminently supportive French oak fermentation. There is an impressive core of fruit presence, tensioned with fully ripe yet impressively energetic acid line that carries a long and enduring finish.
Tyson Stelzer's Top 250 Wines 2024
98 points, Ken Gargett, Wine Pilot
"This latest release is one of the finest Yattarna’s I have seen. A world class, stunning Chardonnay, which hails from a range of regions – Tumbarumba, Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills. The wine sees eight months maturation in French oak barriques, 44% new. A lemon straw colour here, there is exemplary balance, with impeccable refinement. The nose gives us touches of cinnamon and nutmeg – the merest whiff, as the oak integration is so superb – with florals, citrus, spices, ginger, lemon butter and glacéd limes. There is a fine line of bracing acidity, but it is elegance personified. The structure is textbook and the wine finishes with notes of honeycomb and almonds. We have power, intensity and a wonderfully persistent finish. There is surely twelve to twenty years in front of this cracking wine."
98 points, Colin Hay, The Drinks Business
"The 26th vintage of this, Penfolds’ increasingly iconic Chardonnay, made with precisely the same attention to detail and vineyard and parcel selection process as Grange. A fabulous follow-up to the sublime 2021. Aromatically beautiful and sublime in its complexity, each return to the glass revealing new elements. Lime and lime zest, grapefruit and fennel seed, hay, tarte au citron and lemon sorbet. A little white floral note. Elderflower. Lily of the valley. Much more limpid still, than Bin 311 or Reserve Black A. Fluid. Lithe. Fleshy but hyper-crystalline. On the palate, this is so tight and precise, highly structured and very focussed, rapier-like. I love the little touch of iodine and oyster shell that I’ve noticed before with Yattarna, a hint of white pepper too. Very refined, almost delicate. Gorgeous texturally and wonderfully tactile, with a playful and captivating acidity. This tapers gently on the finish with each grip of the acidity, supported by a gentle hint of tannin, releasing plumes of sapid juiciness. The top white here by some distance, but an Everest amongst Himalayan peaks."
98 points, Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate
"The 2022 Yattarna Chardonnay comprises fruit from Tumbarumba (61%), Tasmania (particularly Coal River Valley, 26%) and the balance from the Adelaide Hills. This wine ages slowly and gracefully, and I love it for that. The phenolics frame a powerful core of fruit that is at once streamlined and wide. It blankets the mouth and persists long after the wine is gone. At this stage, it feels inchoate in its development: tiny fish hooks of texture and a frisky sort of acid line both indicate that the wine has some time to go before it fully realizes its potential. This is forever the blue-chip investment in this collection for my taste, and there is a perpetually seamless cohesion of malolactic fermentation into the wine. The Yattarna is fully inoculated with estate-developed yeast strains, built in conjunction over time with the AWRI. It has 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.11 and 6.8 grams per liter of total acidity, and it matured for eight months in French barriques (44% new). Drink: 2024 - 2042."
94 points Tyson Stelzer
One of the best of recent vintages in Tumbarumba has elevated this to the majority composition of Yattarna and the highest proportion of the blend yet. I love its tension and focus, eminently coiled, backward and crunchy even at more than three years of age. Almost ripe fig, white peach and beurre bosc pear are the themes, well framed in the creamy demeanour and supple texture of eminently supportive French oak fermentation. There is an impressive core of fruit presence, tensioned with fully ripe yet impressively energetic acid line that carries a long and enduring finish.
DETAILS
VINTAGE - 2022
VARIETAL - Chardonnay
COUNTRY - Australia
REGION - 61% Tumbarumba, 26% Tasmania, 13% Adelaide Hills
BOTTLE SIZE - 750ml
