Wednesday Wines – Episode 278 – Kooyong’s Incredible Forthcoming Releases
These stunning Kooyong wines will be appearing on our shores this side of Christmas. Some are already here and trickling onto wine merchants’ shelves, too. The prices mentioned are RRPs and the merchants are those who have taken these wines before. To my mind, this collection marks the finest releases I have tasted to date from this Mornington Peninsula specialist.
2024 Kooyong, Clonale Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 13% alc. (The 2023 vintage is in stock with the 2024 arriving by the end of September, RRP £29.00, www.htfwines.co.uk).
Easy on the nose, and layered on the palate, this wine slinks into view and delivers spectacular perfume and flavour and then exits stage left. It is the perfect, ‘entry-level’ Chardonnay from this elite estate, and it is drinking. This is consummate winemaking from the great Tim Perrin, and the skill here is not to add any extra weight, oak, flesh, or irrelevant detail when all we require from this wine is discreet hedonistic pleasure. Job done and done beautifully. 18/20
2024 Kooyong, Single Vineyard Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 13.5% alc. (The 2023 vintage is in stock with the 2024 arriving by the end of September, RRP £37.00, www.golbornefinewinedeli.com, www.tapandbottle.co.uk, www.hic-winemerchants.com).
Like its Pinot Noir stablemate, this is a gloriously well-appointed wine, clearly made from stunning fruit and yet it has been encouraged to accept a forward stance and a duty to perform at the highest level without any warm-up! It bursts from the blocks on the nose and palate and hits every mark with aplomb. The perfume alone is worthy of applause, and the length on the palate matches the very best. In between, the fruit is sleek, sultry and magnetic. It is indulgent and controlled: how many Chardonnays can achieve this from Mornington with this acid profile and in-built tension while drinking from day one? The answer is none that I know of, apart from this stellar wine. 18.5/20
2023 Kooyong, Single Block Farrago Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 13.5% alc. (The 2021 vintage is stock, RRP £49.50, no retailers at present).
Farrago is a 0.8ha block replete with sandstones, and this terroir brings a sense of gravitas and flashbacks of Chardonnay familiarity. Yes, this tastes like previous vintages of Farrago, of course, but it also forces me to think of the hillside plots in Saint-Aubin. I cannot stop these brainwave connections, and they don’t do any harm to my intense appreciation for this wine. That said, this is a youthful wine on wise shoulders, and its terroir dictates its direction of travel. It is forward, enchanting, and delicious, but I venture that its battery pack of minerality and pin-sharp acidity will drive it up to and past any Saint-Aubins I can think of, given time. 18.5+/20
2023 Kooyong, Single Block Faultline Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 13.5% alc. (The 2021 vintage is stock, RRP £49.50, no retailers at present).
Coming from a 0.6ha block, Faultline is actively backwards, more solid and a tiny bit belligerent in the glass. I always look for glimpses of activity in wine, and this one has me scratching my head. That’s not to say the texture and length are not both sublime! But nailing down flavour and melody here is nigh on impossible, and this hints at a mighty life ahead with one of the slowest reveals I venture this estate has ever seen! 18.5++/20
2024 Kooyong, Massale Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 13% alc. (The 2023 vintage is in stock with the 2024 arriving by the end of September, RRP £29.00, www.golbornefinewinedeli.com, www.hic-winemerchants.com, www.vinvm.co.uk, www.islingtonwine.co.uk).
Lovely, bright, seamless, pure and resonant, this is a juicier number than I have seen of late under this label, and it sends overwhelmingly positive signals to your receptors from the off. This must be the most precocious Massale to date, and yet the finish is prim and ordered, signalling a wine that will hold this flirtatious pose for a few years to come! 18/20
2024 Kooyong, Single Vineyard Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 13% alc. (RRP £38.00, no retailers at present).
Much more tense and upright on the palate, and with more gravitas and intensity, too, this is the wine that has drawn on the most structured and imposing fruit that didn’t fit the Massale framework of immediacy and charm, nor the single block, finely defined models of the following three wines. While it probably appears that this ‘estate wine’ could be considered to be fashioned from leftovers, I would turn this convention on its head. Perhaps this is the finest fruit of all at Kooyong that sings its song without the need for the quirkier individuals who are separated from the pack and sent off to ply their trade alone! Either way, this is a stunning wine with gravitas, poise, control and serious nobility! 18.5/20
2023 Kooyong, Single Block Meres, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 13.5% alc. (The 2021 vintage is in stock with the 2023 arriving by the end of September, RRP £55.00, no retailers at present).
Coming from a tiny 0.7ha block, this is the most exposed single-site wine, and it is impossibly refined, fairy-light, delicate, and rhubarb and red cherry-soaked. It is wistful, balletic, dry and teasing, and I love its refinement and the silhouette it casts on my palate. 18.5/20
2023 Kooyong, Single Block Ferrous, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 13% alc. (The 2021 vintage is in stock with the 2023 following on, RRP £55.00, no retailers at present).
Coming from a 0.8ha low-yielding, ironstone pebble-strewn block that delivers its message, straight-backed and with clipped tones. The fruit is linear, crystalline, angular and sleek, with a slightly darker fruit palette than Meres, but with no more weight or power. The result is a rapier-like sense of drama with a stunningly long finish and such clean fruit it takes the breath away. Drinking now, but with so much development ahead of it, this is a fascinating Pinot, and while it yearns to be rigid and unblinking, the fruit is just too gorgeous to get away with this pretence. 18.5/20
2023 Kooyong, Single Block Haven, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 13% alc. (The 2021 vintage is in stock with the 2023 following on, RRP £55.00, no retailers at present).
The Haven block is only 0.6ha, and it is usually my favourite because the amplitude of flavour is heightened, and the texture is always a little more velvety. These twin traits often arrive with a little more tannin to boot, and this is the case in 2023. Yes, the fruit is more exotic and seductive, but you ought to wait at least twelve months before diving into this wine because the finish is foursquare and unyielding. It is my favourite again, but I will be enjoying all five Pinots in this year’s release because they all perform different tasks brilliantly. And when they are all distant memories, I will pour my first glass of 2023 Haven heaven! 19+/20