Penfolds - Yattarna Bin 144 Chardonnay 2018

Cool-climate fruit from Tasmania, Tumbarumba and the Adelaide Hills, barrel fermented and matured eight months in 60% new French barriques, the 2018 Yattarna Chardonnay starts off with aromas of roasted nuts and toasted bread set against a backdrop of tart, citrusy fruit. Medium-bodied, there's just enough flesh to let you know this is Chardonnay—maybe a hint of underripe peach or nectarine—but this is more about line and length, with a strong backbone of acidity that drives the flavors forward into a long, mouth-puckering finish. Impressive, yes. But is it really that enjoyable? Maybe down the road, which is the intention.

Even via videoconferencing software and the sometimes glitchy technology of the internet, the infectious enthusiasm of Penfolds's chief winemaker, Peter Gago, comes through. Given the quality of what's in the bottle, his excitement seems warranted. "It's one of the strongest releases since I've been here," he said. "And I've been here 31 years." The headlines in most media will no doubt zero in on the release of G4—a $3,000 blend of the 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2016 vintages of Grange in undisclosed proportions, although Gago would allow that there's "double-digit percentages of each one." The 2016 Grange is similarly excellent, at less than one-third the price. For most consumers, the biggest news is the superb quality of the 2018 wines, starting with the $40 reds (Bin 138 Shiraz-Grenache-Mataro, Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz and the Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz) and extending up through the range into the Bin 150 Marananga Shiraz and RWT Shiraz. If you're an inveterate Penfolds collector, you might see about putting in reservations for the 2018 St Henri and Grange now. Big, corporate-owned wineries often take flak for being recipe-driven and not always treating their growers well, yet these wines—while they do share a certain "Penfolds style"—all show reasonably clear distinctions when tasted together. Gago also pointed out that the Gersch family—whose grapes appear in the 2016 Bin 111A (released last year) and 2016 Grange—recently delivered their 100th consecutive vintage to the Penfolds winery. Given that Penfolds produces relatively large volumes of many of these wines (there are more than 18,000 cases of the Bin 389 for the American market alone, and nearly 900 cases of Grange for the US), it deserves enormous credit for flying the Australian flag and backing it up with high-quality wines.