2023 Chardonnay
94 Points - Steve Leszczynski, Q Wines
These Lyons Will wines are smart. They are incredibly appealing and very well made. This Chardonnay oozes catch-ups in wine bars, slinging glasses at sunset or just hanging with your love watching some MAFS. From vineyards perched 510m above, the fruit was 30% whole bunch pressed, barrel fermented and saw full malolactic fermentation then nine months in French oak (20% new). Scents of custard powder, lemon juice, lemon rind and lemon sherbet get you in the mood. A delightful introduction, it's easy to simply get caught up in the aromas. Licks of caramel brulee and vanilla frame an expressive delivery with delicate white fleshed stonefruit bringing further detail. Yellow grapefruit acidity brings the mouth to water with a citrusy tang on its heels. Long, moreish and insanely slurpable, there is a wonderful textural appeal that just keeps tapping away. This is an excellent and measured cool climate Chardonnay.
Drink to eight years.
93 Points - Aaron Brasher, The Real Review
Complex aromas of nuts, nougat, grapefruit pith, green melon, just-ripe white stonefruit and mineral. Mouth-filling, punchy and with plenty of layers of flavour. Citrus, green apple, nectarine and some creamy malo action are doing their thing. The acidity is bright and works well with the powerful fruit.
2022 Chardonnay
93 Points - Aaron Brasher, The Real Review
Bright and youthful in the glass. Complex aromas of nuts, grapefruit pith, melon, white flowers and nougat. Layered, focused and mouth-filling, there’s a core of citrus and nectarine along with a gentle oak creaminess and lively acidity. Smart drinking.
95 Points - Jane Faulkner, Wine Companion
Oh hello, here’s a delicious drink from start to finish. It’s neatly composed as it balances the racy acidity to the creamier flavours via lees contact and malo. Yet subtle fruit flavours, a mix of lemon, grapefruit and white nectarine, and there’s a decent sprinkling of ginger spice with the oak imparting more texture and woodsy spices.
2021 CHARDONNAY
91+ Points - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
This is a lean, elegant and lengthy chardonnay. It tastes of lemon, pear and green apple and while it’s racy and refreshing there’s a gentle creaminess to the palate; very gentle. This creaminess brings floral notes along with it. This wine feels very young; it needs time; it will be good.
92 Points - Jane Faulkner, Wine Companion
A tightly framed and wound drink with hints of lemon juice, zest and crunchy Granny Smith apples. The oak adds the merest hint of spice as the fruit has soaked up all the new wood (20% French barriques). Linear and long, refreshing and compelling but needs another year or so in bottle to loosen up.
2019 Chardonnay
93 Points - Andrew Graham, Oz Wine Review
Wild fermented, with an extended maturation on gross lees. Matured for 11 months in barrel. I kept thinking about modern Jura Chardonnay, because of the acidity/wild and wooly edged contrast. Not so much about the oxidative Jura Chard style (so not sous voile), but the very firm acidity and winemaking (rather than fruit) richness. This white smells of lanolin, beeswax, a nutty mealy funk and oat biscuits, but the palate is stern and tangy and grapefruity. There’s a real sense of delicate purpose, and freshness, but still a sense of angularity. A formative wine it is too – the subtle fruit, the acidity, the solidsy funk are still fitting together. Intrigue, regardless, is very high.
92 Points - Jane Faulkner, Wine Companion
Matured 11 months, eschewing mlf, in 15% new French barriques. Allowed to rest for 1 year in bottle before release. A very tight wine for a warm vintage, even in Macedon. A touch more fruit flavour would help. No shortage of acidity, it's mouth-watering and fresh. Linear and long with wafts of lemon blossom, a mere smidge of citrus and nougatine. There's a tangy juiciness and a desperate need for food to match. It will develop in a few years.
Sean Mitchell, The Grape Observer
The 2019 chardonnay is a very restrained and serious style. It has tight aromas of nuts and lemon with a saline, savoury bearing. The palate is medium bodied, its acidity high and initially lemon like before it finishes chiselled, delicate and firm. The oak is deftly handled, almost imperceptible and very well integrated. The alcohol is a moderate 13.0. This is a piercing high acid, cool climate expression of chardonnay from the Macedon Ranges. It is not a wine to pop and pour straight from the cellar. It will show its best if left in the glass for at least 30 minutes and brought to near or below room temperature to reveal its delicate complexity. This chardonnay will suit cellaring for a couple of years to soften and can be consumed then over 5-10 years.
90 Points - Ralph Kyte-Powell, The Real Review
Shiny yellow-straw colour. The mellow nose has tropical fruit and stone fruit, fennel, honey and yeasty undertones, with sensitively-applied oak. The silky palate is gentle in flavour with its fruit subdued a little by acidity at the moment. A little more oomph would be good, but it's a zesty mouthful with a long finish that should build more character in the bottle.
90 Points - Steve Leszczynski, Q Wines
Macedon Ranges Chardonnay from boutique producer Lyons Will Estate.
Some yellow stonefruit and marzipan open the account with honeyed tones too. A feathering of texture through the mouth but the fruit seems to stop that fraction bit too early. Some old-school lemonade late with a flash of lemon rind and raw cashews as well.
The Cellar Post (Instagram)
Macedon Ranges is a region that's pumping out some serious quality these days. Here we have a Chardonnay that marries a nose of white stone fruit, nectarine, white grapefruit and a smidge of oak with bright acidity, crisp and crunchy white grapefruit, rounding white peach, and a touch of woody spice. It's a racy number this.
Wild fermented, with an extended maturation on gross lees. Matured for 11 months in barrel. I kept thinking about modern Jura Chardonnay, because of the acidity/wild and wooly edged contrast. Not so much about the oxidative Jura Chard style (so not sous voile), but the very firm acidity and winemaking (rather than fruit) richness. This white smells of lanolin, beeswax, a nutty mealy funk and oat biscuits, but the palate is stern and tangy and grapefruity. There’s a real sense of delicate purpose, and freshness, but still a sense of angularity. A formative wine it is too – the subtle fruit, the acidity, the solidsy funk are still fitting together. Intrigue, regardless, is very high.
92 Points - Jane Faulkner, Wine Companion
Matured 11 months, eschewing mlf, in 15% new French barriques. Allowed to rest for 1 year in bottle before release. A very tight wine for a warm vintage, even in Macedon. A touch more fruit flavour would help. No shortage of acidity, it's mouth-watering and fresh. Linear and long with wafts of lemon blossom, a mere smidge of citrus and nougatine. There's a tangy juiciness and a desperate need for food to match. It will develop in a few years.
Sean Mitchell, The Grape Observer
The 2019 chardonnay is a very restrained and serious style. It has tight aromas of nuts and lemon with a saline, savoury bearing. The palate is medium bodied, its acidity high and initially lemon like before it finishes chiselled, delicate and firm. The oak is deftly handled, almost imperceptible and very well integrated. The alcohol is a moderate 13.0. This is a piercing high acid, cool climate expression of chardonnay from the Macedon Ranges. It is not a wine to pop and pour straight from the cellar. It will show its best if left in the glass for at least 30 minutes and brought to near or below room temperature to reveal its delicate complexity. This chardonnay will suit cellaring for a couple of years to soften and can be consumed then over 5-10 years.
90 Points - Ralph Kyte-Powell, The Real Review
Shiny yellow-straw colour. The mellow nose has tropical fruit and stone fruit, fennel, honey and yeasty undertones, with sensitively-applied oak. The silky palate is gentle in flavour with its fruit subdued a little by acidity at the moment. A little more oomph would be good, but it's a zesty mouthful with a long finish that should build more character in the bottle.
90 Points - Steve Leszczynski, Q Wines
Macedon Ranges Chardonnay from boutique producer Lyons Will Estate.
Some yellow stonefruit and marzipan open the account with honeyed tones too. A feathering of texture through the mouth but the fruit seems to stop that fraction bit too early. Some old-school lemonade late with a flash of lemon rind and raw cashews as well.
The Cellar Post (Instagram)
Macedon Ranges is a region that's pumping out some serious quality these days. Here we have a Chardonnay that marries a nose of white stone fruit, nectarine, white grapefruit and a smidge of oak with bright acidity, crisp and crunchy white grapefruit, rounding white peach, and a touch of woody spice. It's a racy number this.
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2018 Chardonnay
94 Points - James Halliday, Wine Companion
Hand-picked, fermented in barrel (20% new), matured for 11 months on lees. Has that edgy acidity that underwrites its longevity. 94 Points - Huon Hooke, The Real Review Light to mid-yellow hue. The aromas are subdued and restrained, with strident lemony fruit aromas, which persist throughout the palate. Some almond meal, too. The acidity is high and tangy, with the result that it needs food. It's almost painful acidity, but it would be good with oysters. A very impressive cold-climate chardonnay. 93+ Points - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front Lyons Will is at Lancefield in the Macedon Ranges region. It’s a cool/cold landscape for certain. We have both colour and flavour here but the finish is searing and long. This is a dart aimed at the future. Nectarine and white peach, grapefruit and citrus characters with nashi pear and florals as an afterthought. There’s a sweetness from oak but its influence is gentle at most. It’s an arresting wine. It will be beautiful in time. 93 Points - James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com There’s a flinty and fresh edge to the nose with almost chalky mineral elements, as well as lemon and fresh, young-peach flavors. Gentle savory edge to the finish. |
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2017 Chardonnay
94 Points - Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
20yo vines. 20% new oak. There's plenty of acid cut and it's light on its feet in general, but supple mouthfeel and sweet honeysuckle characters make for seductive drinking. Stone fruits and citrus hold the steering wheel before a long, tangy finish. |
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2016 CHARDONNAY
95 Points - James Halliday, Wine Companion
20yo vines, hand-picked, destemmed, basket-pressed, fermented in French oak (30% new), matured for 12 months. Renata Morello has calmly taken all of the steps needed to bring the best out of what is clearly high quality fruit. The fruit/oak balance and integration are high class, as is the wine. 90 Points - Toni Paterson, The Real Review Highly sweet-fruited with good palate weight and energy. Pleasing stone fruit flavours with hints of almond and fresh cream. Full and flavoursome. |
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2015 CHARDONNAY
94 Point - Patrick Eckel, Wine Reviewer
This is the second release from Lyons Will Estate, the wines are crafted from their estate vineyard in Lancefield which is planted to 2.3 acres of Chardonnay and 2.7 acres of Pinot Noir. The wines are representative of exceptional cool climate viticulture and meagre yields which in the most part are a pre-requisite to grow grapes in the Macedon Ranges. The wine was barrel fermented and spent 16 months maturing in french oak of which 35% was new, with time in oak and on lees helping to provide a rich tapestry of complexity but in no way being the star of the show. Quality cool climate fruit shines though with the nose awash with white peach and nectarine that’s backed by a touch of flint. The palate is well proportioned with stone fruits and fig with flashes of wood spice before a mealy, savoury texture drives structure and focus to finish. Drinking well now, and will continue to evolve over the medium term. 93 Points - Campbell Mattinson, Wine Front It’s rich. It’s full bodied. It’s a crooner, and a good one. Ripe yellow peach meets sweet, spicy oak. The flavour here has a lushness – and it sustains the show all the way through to a satisfying finish. I thought there was a little too much oak at first, and some will think there is, but I looked at it over a period of time and concluded that it just needs some extra time in bottle. It’ll never be a shrinking violet though. It’s a silken chardonnay – with plenty of attitude. 91 Points - James Halliday, Wine Companion The fruit that was grown for this wine was of high quality, as was the oak (fermented and matured in French oak, 35% new) but it should have been removed and bottled (or held in tank) after 11 months, not 16. I can imagine others disputing this, and so be it. Moreover, the end result is far from shabby. |
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2014 CHARdonnay
94 Points - James Halliday, Wine Companion
From the 1ha estate vineyard with the traditional I10V1 and I10V5 clones, hand-picked at 1.7 tonnes per acre, fermented in French barriques (38% new), matured for 15 months. An unambiguously good chardonnay, perfectly ripe, with ripe peach, honeydew melon and grapefruit all having their say on the long, well balanced palate, oak merely a conveyance. 93 Points - Patrick Eckel, Wine Reviewer 2014 continues to be known as a high quality but devastatingly low yielding vintage with the the inaugural release from Lyons Will cropped at only 0.7 tonne per acre. A straw yellow in the glass the nose gives honeyed nectarine and white peach with background oak spice and fresh nougat. The palate has an underlying thread of honeyed stone fruits and green apple with a rolling mineral edge that balances the wines richer notes, to finish there are subtle cashew and lanolin framed by considerable mouthfeel and length to finish. Reminiscent of Chablis in style with a few years under the belt, this will continue to evolve over time. |