This year’s Palladian Chardonnay goes back to a more tight and taut wine after last year’s riper  richer fuller style. A razor sharp lemony focus with a citrus zing. The  toasty oak is present but not overdone. A lovely flinty quartz like dryness offset by a touch of sweetness. Great balance and set up for the long haul.

Reviews and awards

Gold medal. "Power and intensity. Showing some age complexity. Crushed nuts, really back palate weight."

-James Halliday Chardonnay Challenge

"Made with fruit from 23-year-old Gingin clone vines, the 2021 Palladian Chardonnay was handpicked, whole-bunch pressed, wild fermented in French puncheons (100% new) and matured for 10 months. One hundred percent new oak may sound like a lot, but in the case of this wine, the power of the fruit has absorbed the oak, leaving not a trace save the texture and enhanced spice in the mouth. This is marvelous— produced in a vintage that was challenging for many (cool, poorly timed weather events) but successful for the balance. The low-alcohol, earlier-picked style of the Palladian (12.5% alcohol this year) brings a level of finesse and precision that, in this glass, makes for mouthwatering drinking. An exemplar wine that shows the elegance and tension that Margaret River Chardonnay (particularly those made by the Gingin clone) is so capable of. 250 dozen."

-Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate, 97pts

"The fine delicacy and precision of this high-class chardonnay are evident from the get-go. Pear, grapefruit, and subtle understated nuttiness emerge from the nose. There is an almost ethereal quality here that flows through into that fine and most exquisite of palates. This elevates Fraser Gallop into rarefied air."

-Ray Jordan, 97 pts

"The complex bouquet of white flowers provides a confident start. Whole bunch-pressed into 100% new Burgundian special toast puncheons with no settling, matured 9 months. Hyper-refined, but more accessible than Parterre."

-James Halliday, The Weekend Australian, 96 pts

"A pale lemon hue with hints of lime showing. Amazing bouquet of stone fruits, smoky bacon, and roasted nuts. Ample weight and power on the palate draws your attention immediately, stone fruits and smoky nuts abound throughout yet there’s a thread of acidity that runs throughout bringing control and drive to the intensity of fruit. Great length and finishes with a clarity that has you clamouring for more"

-The Real Review, 96 pts

"A wine that commands respect, yet it is a wonderful drink. It’s complex and detailed with excellent fruit at its heart, a pulse of refreshing acidity, fabulous smoky oak and hints of funky sulphides rendering this savoury. It lingers long, It’s persuasive. Classy with a capital C."

-Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion, 96 pts

"A flinty nose of crushed thyme, sliced white peaches and baked lemons. Medium-bodied with succulent citrus fruit and toasted spice. A bit saline, too. Complex. Persistent and very nicely composed. Vegan. Best after 2024. Screw cap."

-James Suckling, 95 pts

"I think 2021 Margaret River Chardonnay can be very good, though there a few issues here and there with them, sometimes they can be a little mucky and lactic, or something like that. This is one of the better wines.
Sea spray, spicy biscuit ginger oak, almond and crème brulée, ripe lime and pink grapefruit. Intense and concentrated, flinty with some creamy gloss, tangy preserved lemon flavours, green apple, tight and very long. No shortage of drive and structure here, that’s for sure. It should be quite something with a few more years in bottle."

-Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, 95+ pts

"The 2021 Palladian Chardonnay is a svelte, sapid iteration of Chardonnay from this region, showing us a peacock-tail splay of acid, fruit and phenolics—each in perfect tension with the others. There are notes of crushed nuts, white peach, layers of brine, sandalwood, saffron curls and orange blossom. What a wine! This is only getting better with age. Superb. The 2021 season was cool, and the Chardonnay wines are precise and focused. Here, so intense! Achingly so. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
Under the winemaking direction of Clive Otto, Fraser Gallop has built their reputation on the quality of their Chardonnays and Cabernet Sauvignons. I would say the house style is refined and elegant across all varieties. The 2021 Palladian Chardonnay was an astoundingly pure, crystalline, sleep example of Margaret River Chardonnay. It took my breath away."

-Erin Larkin, Robert Parker The Wine Advocate, 97+pts