Shaw & Smith M3 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2021 (Australia)

Shaw & Smith M3 Adelaide Hills Chardonnay 2021 (Australia)French oak Nectarine & citrus White florals Fresh acidity "Light, bright green yellow colour. Toasty nut bouquet, smoky oak, lovely fruit along with it, the palate delicate and restrained but intense at the same time, penetrating and long. A very taut, refined wine, with attractive tension and persistence. This is lovely now and has room to grow" Huon Hooke, Real Review, Apr 2022 "An outstanding vintage. Quietly, it wields its magic. Its youthful

• French oak
• Nectarine & citrus
• White florals
• Fresh acidity

"Light, bright green-yellow colour. Toasty nut bouquet, smoky oak, lovely fruit along with it, the palate delicate and restrained but intense at the same time, penetrating and long. A very taut, refined wine, with attractive tension and persistence. This is lovely now and has room to grow" Huon Hooke, Real Review, Apr 2022

"An outstanding vintage. Quietly, it wields its magic. Its youthful exuberance is tightly wound, with whispers of green apple, grapefruit, lemon peel and almond, firming and rising through the wine. Acidity drives and energises the pristine fruit with oak a gentle accompaniment. Fine and elegant now. An outstanding future is writ large" Jodi Port, Halliday Wine Companion

Aiming for elegance, restraint and the ability to age, acid is bright and there’s generosity of flavour. Typically it shows white flowers, citrus, and nectarine notes. The 2021 vintage was one of the best on record. Ripe and healthy fruit resulted in a beautifully balanced M3, with great flavours, and fresh acidity right through to the long finish.

Shaw + Smith own three vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, at Balhannah, Lenswood and Piccadilly, totalling 59 hectares. The vineyards are planted to varieties that perform particularly well in the region, namely Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Shiraz. From Piccadilly, Lobethal and our Lenswood Vineyard, at 455–500 metres elevation. Undulating with east and west facing aspects, the soils are brown loams over clay with broken shale on the ridges. The vineyard was planted in 1999.

The growing season for the 2021 vintage was terrific, a joy after the traumas of 2020. Soaking winter rains gave us plenty of moisture in the soil, and that flowed into healthy crops. The summer was mild, slow ripening, with lots of flavour.

Hand picked and whole bunch pressed. Fermented and matured on lees in French oak barriques and puncheons.

The Shaw + Smith winery was built in 2000 giving us the ability to whole-bunch press chilled grapes for the first time, and underpinning the evolution of style from that first M3 Chardonnay vintage in 2000 through to the present day. The most significant event since then came in 2012 with the purchase of the Lenswood vineyard.