Unmistakably premium, the best Chardonnay from Margaret River is recognised globally for its purity, elegance, intensity and power – with layered complexity, possessing a distinct affinity to French oak maturation, but all tempered by generally moderate alcohol levels in the 12% to 13.5% range, and combined with exceptionally bright, fresh natural acids. The wines tend to be concentrated yet very refined, with winemakers able to build texture and mouthfeel through lees ageing, bâtonnage, and extended barrel maturation. Another secret ingredient in their winemakers’ armoury is the Gingin heritage Chardonnay clone.

This clone is now ubiquitous with the region, producing low-cropping levels of small bunches, often with the hallmark ‘hen and chicken’ berries (millerandage), a situation where some bunches display both larger, riper grapes and some that are smaller, greener and less evolved. These tiny Gingin clone bunches provide an all-important intensity of fruit concentration together with a tantalisingly tangy natural grape acidity that helps emphasise the mineral notions in the final wines.

Originally brought to Western Australia by the Department of Agriculture from the University of California Davis in 1957, 24 canes were allegedly imported as a disease indicator vine, with the transaction overseen by Dr Harold Olmo, who had visited Western Australia in 1955 to provide viticultural recommendations to the local industry. First cultivated at the Swan Valley Research Station, and eventually supplied to a vineyard in Swan Valley and to another in Gingin, north of Perth, cuttings from these vineyards eventually found their way to the now famous pioneer producers of Margaret River including Leeuwin Estate, Moss Wood, and Cullen Wines in 1976, and subsequent vineyards in 1978.

The Gingin clone vine vigour is moderate, and bunches are normally smaller, at only around 70 to 100 grams, which typically offer more fruit concentration than many other Chardonnay clones. Bunches ripen slowly and retain intense flavours and a high natural acidity, one of Gingin’s greatest assets. While Chardonnay wine styles are often influenced by winemaking intent, generosity of flavour is the hallmark of this clone and has come to typify the premium Chardonnay expressions produced in the Margaret River region.

Wine collectors and connoisseurs will be pleased to learn that the Margaret River wine region has enjoyed a very successful run of recent vintages. The comparatively late and long cool season of 2019 shows parallels with the 2017 vintage, the cooler conditions resulting in amazing flavour intensity and acid retention in the whites. The 2020 vintage was a real treat for viticulturists, with near perfect harvest conditions ripening one of the smallest crops in recent years. But quality was exceptional, producing some of the finest Chardonnays the region as seen yet. The 2021 vintage saw a mild spring with reasonable rainfall providing excellent conditions for another extraordinarily high-quality harvest. The 2022 vintage saw long sustained ‘hang times’ for the Chardonnay grapes, leading to wines with excellent quality and ripeness. Finally, 2023 proved an extended yet very rewarding vintage in the Margaret River region, allowing its hero variety of Chardonnay to register its fifth truly standout vintage in a row. Drinkers are quite simply spoilt for choice when it comes to the quality of Margaret River Chardonnays on the market at the moment.

With a dominance of small, boutique, artisanal producers, and around 100 cellar doors operating in the region (out of a total 185 producers), demand for Margaret River’s best wines in the local home market is unsurprisingly very strong, with only 10% of annual production exported. Predictably, markets like the UK with strong cultural and historical ties to Australia, snap up around 20% of the export volume, ahead of countries like Singapore (13%), Canada (7%) and Hong Kong (6%), leaving the USA alone as the top export destination with 21% of bottled wines by value.

Needless to say, with such strong local market demand, prices of the best Chardonnay examples from the most famous pioneer and cult producers are not going to be cheap. But if my recent tastings of some of the region’s most famous producers is anything to go by, collectors and connoisseurs will be richly rewarded by these exceptional Margaret River Chardonnays that now form the perfect alternative to the highly priced and hard to buy expressions from Burgundy’s famous appellations of Puligny-Montrachet, Chassagne-Montrachet and Meursault.