2024 Joshua Cooper Dash Farms Chardonnay 750Ml

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'This has quite a bit of richness, slippery texture, green apple, green mango, a touch of ripe nectarine with nougat, almond butter, liquid cinnamon and light terracotta notes with a slip of sizzled butter in there too. It’s got form and depth, a pleasing texture, a gentle sense of minerality, great sticking length and a sense of power. In some respects it’s a bit more of a relaxed wine, and feels a bit slow, if you get my drift. A pleasurable wine, a hedonist’s wine, feels a bit forward, but let’s see what happens in coming years too. Quite a lot of complexity here, but perhaps the energy is taking it off the pace a little.'
93 points - Mike Bennie, The Wine Front

Planted 1999, Dash Farms sits perched at over 450m asl on the Southern granitic slopes of Mt Alexander (Leanganook) looking back towards Mt Macedon and the Macedon Ranges. Like Ray-Monde, it sits just outside the Macedon Ranges GI. Ripening for Chardonnay occurs around a week earlier than my family’s vineyard Cobaw Ridge. These lean granite soils and high altitude confer both concentration and freshness at low sugar levels.

Once hand harvested with careful sorting in the vineyard, the bunches were partially crushed by foot and very gently pressed. Overnight settling then occurs before transfer to a combination of new Stockinger 300l oak and Burgundian piece for fermentation and lees ageing for 12 months. This is then followed by four months in stainless steel on fine lees, before racking and bottling, unfined and unfiltered.

Pale with a green edge, Dash Farm’s offers restrained aromas of crushed rock, lemon and grapefruit rind, just ripe nectarine and spice. Flavours carry through to a dense and powerful palate with powdery phenolics, flinty, savoury complexity and a fine acid line, finishing creamy and long. The best vintage of this cuvee yet. - Joshua Cooper on the '24 Vintage