Bannockburn Vineyards Chardonnay 2025
The Wine
There can’t be many Victorian Chardonnays with a track record as impressive as Bannockburn’s. The quality and style on offer can be traced back to the estate’s exceptional, organically farmed sites.
Sourced from Bannockburn estate vineyards planted between 1976 and 2016, including Olive Tree Hill, Winery Block, Stuart Block, Grigsby, and Kelly Lane, the fruit was whole bunch pressed then wild fermented in French oak (25% new), with 70% malolactic fermentation and 10 months’ lees aging without stirring. The generous 2025 harvest delivered a wine of clarity and precision, with ripe stone fruit, grapefruit, and pear on the palate carried by bright acidity to a long, pure finish
Whole-bunch pressed and settled overnight, the juice was then wild-fermented in a mixture of 500-litre French oak hogsheads and puncheons (20% new), with 70%undergoing malolactic. The wine spent 10 months on lees with no stirring.
96 Pts Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front ‘There are yellow stone fruits characters here, and an array of sweet spice notes, but it’s the flesh, the rush and the juice of grapefruit and ripe pear flavours that both dominate and seduce. This wine really does make you dive quickly in for more. There’s a subtle smokiness, some tonic and mineral-like notes, and an especially noticeable (extra) linger to the finish. This is one of those wines where the acidity itself feels flushed with flavour. The aftertaste then adds some pebble-stone characters, just because it can. What a wine.’
The Details
Variety - Chardonnay
Country - Australia
Region - Victoria
Sub Region - Geelong, Moorabool Valley
Extra - Screwcap
Year - 2025
Volume - 750ml
About the Wine Maker 
Since its establishment by the late Stuart Hooper in 1974, Bannockburn Vineyards has been at the vanguard of the Australian fine wine story, producing vineyard designated wines of the highest quality from the start.
Stuart’s vinous passion was developed in WW2 Europe where he developed a fondness for the wines of Burgundy. Subsequently, on his return to Geelong and retirement, he developed Bannockburn Vineyards from scratch. Gary Farr (By Farr) became their first winemaker (1978 to 2004), and Bannockburn’s success is a large attributed to his visionary efforts.
Lying 25kms northwest of Geelong along the Midland Highway, the estate is located in the Moorabool Valley sub-region, just outside the township of Bannockburn. Here, Bannockburn’s predominantly mature vines are rooted in one of Victoria’s most unique low-fertility terroirs; volcanic surface debris and ancient sea beds running to richer and darker soils, layered over predominantly limestone bedrock.
Under Holmes’ (current Winemaker) direction there’s been a stylistic tilt in the winery, and with his Chardonnay, he’s steering a racier, more mouth-watering course—with less emphasis on lees and oak and more on vibrant acidity and freshness. Yet it is perhaps the style and quality of Bannockburn’s Pinot Noir in which the changes can be most keenly observed. An earlier-bottling regime and more reticent use of whole bunches are resulting in a purity of expression perhaps never seen under this label.
In the vineyards, Holmes works with Lucas Grigsby, Bannockburn’s viticulturist for over 30 years. Grigsby takes great pride in tending to the vineyards with a strong belief in organic farming practices to maintain the health of the soils and Bannockburn’s vines. Between them, the pair’s viticultural principles are based on a healthy respect for the land and responsible farming, e.g., the use of organic composting and straw mulching to eliminate the need for herbicide sprays and the cultivation of inter-row cover crops to add soil nutrients.
These principles flow through into the winery where Holmes employs minimal additions, wild yeast ferments and low intervention winemaking resulting in wines that are made with integrity and that are distinctively Bannockburn.
