Shaw and Smith M3 Chardonnay Adelaide Hills – 2021

The 2021 vintage was one of the best on record in South Australia. This Chardonnay was vinified like a white Burgundy; the grapes were hand-picked then fermented and matured on their lees in French oak barrels and puncheons.

Ripe citrus and nectarine fruit flavours combine with notes of white flowers. The wine is beautifully balanced, elegant and restrained with delicious flavours and fresh acidity which persists right through to the long finish.

“The ’21 M3 release sees a price rise, which the makers clearly consider fitting for a wine celebrated as one of the best chardonnays in the country. It’s also an outstanding vintage. Quietly, it wields its magic. Its youthful exuberance is tightly wound, with whispers of green apple, grapefruit, lemon peel and almond, firming and rising through the wine. Acidity drives and energises the pristine fruit with oak a gentle accompaniment. Fine and elegant now. An outstanding future is writ large.”

97/100pts James Halliday Wine Companion 2022/23

“Restrained, elegant and complex, with no hint of tropical fruit but relevant citrus and white fruit notes in this cool-climate Chardonnay. Oak integration is stunning and the wine shows personality, vibrancy, mouth-watering acidity and a precise, long finish.” 96/100pts; Decanter Magazine and one of its “wines of the year” in 2022.

“Light, bright green-yellow colour. Toasty nut bouquet, smoky oak, lovely fruit along it, the palate delicate and restrained but intense at the same time, penetrating and long. A very taut, refined wine, with attractive tension and persistence. This is lovely now and has room to grow”. 95/100pts Huon Hooke; the Real Review