New-Wave Australian Powerhouse
- 91 pts Vinous91 pts Vinous
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2015 Nugan Estate Chardonnay Drover's Hut Single Vineyard Riverina Australia 750 ml
- Curated by unrivaled experts
- Choose your delivery date
- Temperature controlled shipping options
- Get credited back if a wine fails to impress
Loved-by-the-Sun Texture with Fantastic Freshness
Loved-by-the-Sun Texture with Fantastic Freshness
If you’re looking for the future of New World Chardonnay, look no further than to Australia’s best producers. Today’s 2015 Nugan Estate “Drover’s Hut” Chardonnay is your opportunity to check in on one of the leading revolutionaries of Australia’s new wave powerhouse producers. In a 2016 editorial, Antonio Galloni’s Vinous pronounced that Australia’s wine industry is, “Among the most dynamic in the world right now.” And this “Drover’s Hut” Chardonnay exemplifies this axiom with “impressive energy” and a texture that’s “silky, broad, and seamless on the palate,” tied off with a 91-point ribbon. We always pride ourselves at finding extraordinary wines at modest price tags, and we can safely say that if you lock into anything less than six bottles, you’ll regret it. At $14.99 per bottle, here’s your chance to get affordable, top-quality Chardonnay into regular drinking rotation.
Australia’s rise to wine-world glory comes on the heels of a wave of improvements to production methods as well as farming. For savvy producers like Nugan, restraint is the word of the day, and it shows in the glass. The wines still have a loved-by-the-sun texture you want from New World Chardonnay, but preserve fantastic freshness that leaves you wanting a second sip.
Great white wine is all about the combination of richness, matched with refreshment and levity: the see-saw between powerful texture and mouth-watering freshness. 70 years of farming expertise has taught Nugan that this alchemy starts with careful work in the vineyards: carefully metered irrigation, precise picking, and night harvests to preserve acid freshness. The textural contributions of used oak impart a generous mouthfeel without the overtly oaky tones, and malolactic fermentation is purposefully blocked to preserve the crisp, malic acid.
The finished result tastes like warmer-vintage white Burgundy, with a boosted fruit profile and texture, while maintaining the kaleidoscopic complexity and poised balance of the Côte de Beaune’s finest.