Giaconda - Estate Vineyard Chardonnay - 2010

“Unashamedly,” Giaconda founder and winemaker Rick Kinzbrunner says, “I made this wine for me. Love it or hate it, I don’t really care”. It’s the first of the fully-fledged Giaconda chardonnay releases to have been entirely matured in Giaconda’s new-ish underground cave, which Kinzbrunner credits for allowing a “slower and more even ageing process”. This 2010 contends for the title of ‘best Giaconda chardonnay yet released‘. It is certainly up there with the sensational 1996 and 2002 releases. Full on. Flinty. Minerally. One hundred percent compelling. An outstanding example of what Giaconda does best: rich, penetrating fruit with funky, matchsticky, smouldering fireworks. Many emulate it, almost no one pulls it off. This is a knockout. Powerful grapefruit and grilled nuts. White flowers. Nuts and toast. One for the true Giaconda chardonnay believers 97 Points Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front A wine of staggering power, intensity and concentration, all the components - fruit, acidity, oak - are in perfect balance, albeit as yet tightly wound, early complexity ex a touch of matchstick. It is the first vintage made entirely in the cellar, and Kinzbrunner believes it will be better than the '96, a view I entirely agree with. 97 Points James Halliday, The Halliday Wine Companion