Description
5 Red Star Rated Winery – Australian Wine Companion
Top 100 Wineries 2023, Halliday Australian Wine Companion “Quiet achievers are often the keepers, and the wines of Collector Wines are exactly that. Canberra’s Collector Wines never seems to make a great deal of fuss and yet every year, in the glass, it’s showtime, with gorgeously funky chardonnay and stellar cool-climate shiraz as its flagbearers ..” Campbell Mattinson.
Collector Wines are a boutique wine producer. Grapes are grown on the characteristic lean pink granites and reddish shale loams of the Canberra District and Tumbarumba. The wines are hand-made for balance, character and depth of flavour.
Alex McKay started Collector Wines in 2005 with just a handful of cool climate shiraz and a determination to make elegant, long-lived wines. Fast forward to today, and they are known for wines that sing with a purity of regional expression and varietal definition.
Vineyard blocks are variously located between 610 and 760m altitude at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. The sites offer exceptional conditions for growing Chardonnay at the cool margin. The soil is deep, well-drained, weathered granite.
The 2021/22 growing season was marked by moist and cool conditions throughout, with vines exhibiting generous growth. A long, cool ripening period enabled stress-free ripening and very memorable accumulation of aromatics and grape acid.
Vineyard blocks are variously located between 610 and 760m altitude at the foothills of the Snowy Mountains. The sites offer exceptional conditions for growing Chardonnay at the cool margin. The soil is deep, well-drained, decomposed granite. Rocky soils are a struggle for the vines and root matrix stretches deep with the result being more intense fruit flavour and balance. Penfolds now sources 60% of fruit for Yattarna from Tumburumba to give you an idea of the calibre of the region.
Alex describes the fruit as ‘jewels on the vine’ in this pristine alpine wine region. The grapes were harvested at just over 12 Baumé, with 10+ g/L acid. The fruit was whole bunch pressed and run to a mix of new and seasoned Allier and Vosges oak for fermentation. Parcels underwent varying degrees of malolactic fermentation, and were aged on lees, before blending and bottling in March 2023.
The wine is fresh on the nose with aromas of white flowers, grapefruit and flint. A changing and complex wine of depth and concentration that with time in the glass reveals lemon curd, brioche and spent matchsticks. The palate is focussed, mouth-filling and long. The wine will metamorphose and take on complexity with age.
Gold Medal, Canberra and Region Wine Show, 2024
95 points, Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion “The power and finesse of Tumbarumba chardonnay are on show here, folks. And at its best. This is flinty and a little funky with lemon blossom and mock orange to twitch the nose and mouth-watering flavours teasing the palate. Full of Meyer lemon, ginger spice and nougat with a layer of creamy lees adding texture while the fine acidity is both cleansing and spine-tingling. It finishes long, precise and with conviction.”
95 points, Aaron Brasher, therealreview.com “Lifted and evocative aromas of grapefruit pith, white flowers, nougat, white peach and a lick of struck match. Lovely complexity. Mouth-filling, fine and focused on the palate. There’s a driving, piercing line of acidity along with flavours of just-ripe white stone fruit, grilled nuts and citrus. Great length, texture and poise.”
95 points, Kasia Sobiesiak, The Wine Front “Peanut brittle and pink grapefruit, lots of flavour sits upfront, it’s very satisfying, fans out with crème anglaise and white peach. Good melange of spice, creamy mid-palate, acidic tension and lightly salty nuance enhancing the flavour profile. It’s a very good wine and as per the score record with a very good consistency and price too.”
RRP $51 **Our Price $38.99**
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