Our wine.

After coming off one of the earliest and quickest vintages ever of 2024, 2025 presented as a more ‘classical vintage’. A strong start thanks to late winter rains, followed by a warm, dry, and consistent summer with sea breezes, led to strong yields and outstanding fruit quality, with minimal disease pressure. While Chardonnay and other white varieties were early highlights.

As with all Margaret River vintages, the foundations were laid in spring, with moderate temperatures, setting up vineyards very well for the transition into summer with healthy canopies helping to carry yields that had set favourable during flowering. This was followed by a warm and consistently dry summer, accompanied by the afternoon sea breezes that played their signature role in reducing disease pressure and moderating ripening conditions, delivering a long, even growing season. This allowed fruit to develop steadily with exceptional composure, while preserving acidity and freshness. While the growing season was smooth, the impact of the previous vintage’s hot and early conditions remained evident in vine physiology, with some blocks showing uneven shoot growth and reduced vigour. Chardonnay displayed initial bursts of growth, followed by a developmental pause, which pushed veraison into mid-to-late January.

The 2025 vintage growing season temperatures were close to average and comparable to those experienced in 2021 and 2022—both considered high-quality vintages. The region experienced very little disease pressure throughout the season, contributing to excellent fruit conditions at harvest. Margaret River 2025 Vintage Harvest Conditions. Harvest for white varieties commenced in early February, much more in line with traditional timings and around three weeks later than the very early 2024 vintage.

The fruit for our 2025 Margaret River Chardonnay is all Gingin clone sourced from three grower vineyards across three subregions  – Karridale, Wilyabrup and Carbarup to build a Chardonnay which shows regional characters and represents the North to South diversity of Margaret River. The Carbunup fruit was hand harvested on February 11, a day off when it was harvested in the unicorn vintage of 2023!

The Wilyabrup Chardonnay portion was harvested on later on February 18, not dissimilar to our 2023 pick date for this vineyard. Like the Carbunup portion this is all Gingin clone. This portion of fruit, which amounted for almost 60% of the blend, was picked a little riper to add some further power into the fruit spectrum combining the citrus line with a touch of fresh, zesty passionfruit pith notes.

The Karridale fruit portion came from the Challis Bridge vineyard, and the acclaimed 8A block. This fruit was hand harvested in March and is the key to the structure of this wine and the flinty edge.

The vine age across these Chardonnay parcels is 25 and 30 years which is why very little intervention is required so we had the luxury of picking at the optimum time to allow flavour intensity, tannins and sugars to develop with balance and harmony. Al parcels of fruit delivered elegance and freshness with lovely natural acidity, from a stunningly epic vintage. On a whole, wines from the 2025 vintage in Margaret River will be remembered for its balance, consistency, and near-perfect ripening conditions.

The hand harvested fruit was refrigerated for 24 hours and cooled down before being whole bunch pressed direct from press to an even mix of new, one year old and two year old French oak barriques and Hogshead barrels for natural fermentation. It matured in barrel on solids for 9 months with some gentle stirring to build some texture. Some barrels started creeping through MLF prior to winter and were cut off based on taste to provide a very small portion of MLF to further build some texture to this wine. The best barrels from these two parcels were selected in November and blended together and finished in December. The wine was bottled just prior to Christmas.

In a glass the wine presents with a vibrant straw tinged yellow. The nose is flinty with lifted intense varietal characteristics of citrus and stone fruit combined, and complimented by pretty white flowers. The palate expresses a minerally liveliness of stone fruit, with some oyster shell, and saline notes with well-balanced natural acidity and complexity.