Penfolds - Chardonnay

2011 Tasting Notes

Penfolds Rawson's Retreat wines present classic single varietals and varietal blends in an approachable, fresh-flavoured style. Drawing on Penfolds extensive vineyard resources, these wines offer a first-rate quality and value guarantee, presenting the drinker with an affordable taste of everyday Australian wine at its best.

The name Rawson's Retreat is an informal reference to the stone cottage built in 1845 by Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold at the famous Magill vineyard in Adelaide, where he, with wife Mary and daughter Georgina, had settled the year before and were to establish the Penfolds winery which still operates today.

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Rawsons Retreat Chardonnay is a terrific example of the modern Australian style of chardonnay.

Careful viticultural management practices in the growing season ensure that the winemakers receive fruit with elegance and finesse, with its natural acidity intact. Careful winemaking techniques are then employed to ensure that the resulting wine maintains the elegance and finesse from the vineyard, adding further complexity with lees stirring and oak maturation, which also provide balance and increased mouthfeel.

Rawson’s Retreat Chardonnay is made from carefully selected fruit grown across southeast Australia. It displays the expected Australian chardonnay characteristics of rockmelon and peach flavours, balanced with some pithy grapefruit notes, balancing the final wine perfectly. This wine has an uncommon level of complexity for an offering at this price point and is ideally matched to poultry dishes or seafood with a buttery sauce.