Mayfield Vineyard Premier'Thomas' Chardonnay

This is beautifully complex and inviting on the nose with golden peach, French vanilla, oatmeal, hazelnut and lemon peel aromas, leading to a wonderfully weighted palate that's creamy yet firmly structured by bright acidity. It's superbly long and expansive with layers of engaging flavours. At its best: now to 2032

There’s a wonderful mix of brisk lemon, banana cream and citrus with this filigreed white peach line that fans out wonderfully – you still get that pristine, bracing Orange acidity, but it just fills out so well through the palate. Enjoyment plus and a real success for Mayfield.

More complex, finer and more detailed chardonnay than the 1815. Very smart wine.

Put simply, wines like the latest Chardonnays from Mayfield Vineyard will continue to raise the reputation of the Orange region. Stunning stuff, which deserves attention. The fruit for this one was settled overnight before transfer to a mix of new and older French puncheons, hogsheads and barrels before 75% malo. Pale lemon with green flecks. The aroma opens with nutty notes, cinnamon, stonefruit and beeswax. There are peaches, spices and apricot kernels also evident. A lovely slippery, seductive texture, the oak is still holding forth, but it is integrating well and, given six to twelve months, this should be a harmonious and approachable Chardy. The peach notes really emerge on the palate which shows medium to good length with a gentle fade, so will drink beautifully for the next four to five years.

2023 Melbourne Royal Wine Awards

Welcome to the new range of wines from Mayfield Vineyard under the flagship 'Premier Range'. The detail this Thomas Chardonnay carries is evident. 75% of the wine went through malolactic fermentation and saw a mix of new and seasons French oak. The new oak certainly has an impact adding a creaminess and a touch of vanilla. It's a wine that wants to get in deep but skims the surface for now and a few days of tasting highlighted this. No doubt, bottle age will be its friend. Lemon slice, pie apple, pastry, and arrowroot biscuits add detail, but there is some wriggle room for the concentration of peach and nectarine that sits mid-palate. Well balanced acidity adds some energy on close, but I reckon we'll see the best of it in a few years time.

"You expect a fair bit from chardonnay costing $65 and your tastebuds gear up for the occasion. There's flavour and character aplenty but alas the only thing you don't get enough of is millilitres."

A lovely counterpoint to the Block 14. Celebrating width and richness with creamy oak, bread crust/mealy tones and leesy depth off-setting flintiness. Still shows the regional thrust of acidity through the artifice. Plenty of stone fruit and grapefruit with a delicious textural grip.

"This small batch wine makes the top 5 list for its purity of fruit, austerity, and potential to develop into a world beater over the next 5 – 10 years. In its youth, this delicate wine delivers green citrus, honeydew and fuji apple notes, and oodles of cheek-sucking racy acids through the finish. Clean, fresh and vibrant, the 75% malo adds enough creamy texture to make it extremely approachable now, but I’m looking forward to cracking the stelvin again in 7 or 8 years’ time." Travis Schultz, Wine & Musings, May 2023

THE Orange land on which the Mayfield vineyard stands has rich history that is celebrated in today’s two wines. This fine Orange chardonnay firstly honours Thomas Icely, Mayfield’s 1840s owner, who won fame for his pioneer cattle and sheep grazing and horse breeding. Icely was followed as owner in the 1880s by Thomas Crawford, an immigrant member of the prosperous Scottish William Crawford and Sons biscuit-making family. The current owners since 2021 are the Orange-raisedQueensland car dealership chief John Eastham and his wife Bec and their family and the third Thomas on this label is their son. The wine is green-tinted straw and has honeysuckle scents and expressive mango front-palate flavour. The middle palate shows fig, lemon curd, almond and buttery oak and slatey acid plays at the finish. It and the William pinot noir are available at mayfieldvineyard.com.au and the Orange cellar door. It will go well with honey-roasted quail and cellar four years.

The aromatics lean very much towards cool climate grapefruit supported by subtle French oak. Partial (75.0%) malolactic adds texture and moderates the acid impact. Very well made. ★★★★