Scarborough Chardonnay 2023

Twelve months in French oak of varying ages, with natural malolactic fermentation, gives this Yellow Label Chardonnay its classic buttery, creamy Hunter Valley style. Cinnamon-poached white peach and crushed roasted cashew lead into a stewed-nectarine mid-palate framed by perfumed French oak, and this vintage carries more energy and better-balanced acidity than earlier releases.

The fruit comes from the family's Gillards Road property at Pokolbin and from other Hunter vineyards on the same soil. That soil is a deep hillside terra rossa of limestone parentage. Gillards Road was the original vineyard, planted in the early 1980s to chardonnay and pinot noir.

The house method has not changed much. Grapes are picked in the early hours, then crushed, pressed and settled in steel. A third of the way through, the fermenting juice moves to French barrels to finish. The lees are stirred monthly, and the wine is bottled a year before release, so it reaches the shop at around three years old.

The first vintage was 1987. Ian and Merralea Scarborough sold it by loading a pallet into the car and driving to Sydney restaurants. Many still list it. Roast chicken with herbs, scallops in butter or a mushroom risotto all suit it.