Woodlands Brook Chardonnay, Margaret River 2022

Woodlands is one of the founding names of Margaret River, planted by the Watson family in the 1970s and central to making the Wilyabrup Valley the address it is for Chardonnay and Cabernet. This is their single-vineyard Chardonnay, drawn entirely from the close-planted Brook plot - the wine where the estate turns everything up a notch over its village bottling. It's made the traditional way: handpicked and hand-sorted, then whole-bunch pressed straight to barrel and left to ferment on its own wild yeasts, with a little malolactic happening naturally. It spends ten months in large-format French oak - puncheons and foudres rather than small barriques - so the oak frames the fruit and adds texture without dominating. The Brook vineyard is farmed organically. The result leads with flint and citrus, then white peach, honeysuckle and a little rockmelon, with a savoury, struck-match edge and a creamy, nutty undercurrent from the lees. Natural acidity keeps it taut and drives a long, structured finish. Bright and generous at once. Serve lightly chilled, around 10-12°C.