FROMM Chardonnay Clayvin Vineyard 2013
Huon Hooke & Bob Campbell, Gourmet Traveller Wine
96 Points, 5 Stars
“Concentrated Chardonnay from a reputable hillside vineyard with grapefruit, mineral and nutty oak flavours. A vibrant, youthful wine with a distinctive chalky thread. It is taut, vibrant with great cellaring potential.”
Lisa Perotti- Brown (Robert Parker, Wine Advocate)
91+ Points
“The 2013 Clayvin Vineyard Chardonnay offers expressive notes of ripe peaches, grapefruit and toasted almonds with hints of struck match, baking bread, butterscotch and crushed stones. Light to medium bodied with a racy acid backbone, it has a great intensity of savory, citrus and stone fruit flavors, finishing with wonderful persistence.”
Bob Campbell
96 Points
“A concentrated Chardonnay, with strong citrus, grapefruit, mineral and nutty oak flavours. Vibrant, youthful wine with a distinctive chalky thread that is a distinct vineyard character. Taut, bright wine with obvious cellaring potential. I was tempted to recommend that the wine not be opened for at least two years, but as good as I expect it to be with a little bottle age it can certainly be appreciated now.”
JOHN SAKER
19 points / 20
“Intense, fascinating, white flower, stonefruit and Chablis-like mineral scents. This is a direct, powerful style…well-toned but wearing just a touch of attractive fatness. The acidity propels a strong drive across the palate – lean, citrusy, minerally, and pure (and nary a detectable reductive note). This is an exciting, energetic style – easily the finest Marlborough chardonnay I have tasted.”
Michael Cooper
Super Classic, 5 Stars
“Fermented with indigenous yeasts in French oak barriques, with little or no use of new wood, it is barrel-aged for well over a year. It is a rare wine – only three barrels were produced in 2013 – and top vintages mature well for a decade. The 2013 vintage (5*) is pale lemon/green, with a highly fragrant, complex bouquet. Already delicious, it is very refined and harmonious, with concentrated, ripe grapefruit-like flavours, a subtle seasoning of oak, a slightly creamy texture, and lovely delicacy, poise and persistence.”
Raymond Chan
18.5 Points / 20
“Bright straw-yellow colour with light, lemon-green hues, pale on edge. The bouquet is very tight and refined, with seamlessly interwoven detail, showing white stonefruits, white florals, nutty elements and savoury barrel-ferment nuances, unfolding the faintest suggestion of flinty complexities with lemon-curd MLF elements. This is fresh, youthful and harmoniously balanced. Medium-full bodied, the palate features a deep core with fresh and bright flavours of white stonefruits, white florals and rich nutty layers. The mouthfeel is very fine featured and fine-textured, and follows a fresh line of acidity. The concentration and finesse are beautifully balanced and the wine carries with excellent energy to a long, thirst-quenching, dry-textured, refined finish. This is a stylishly restrained, elegantly concentrated Chardonnay with classical white stonefruit and nutty flavours reminiscent of white burgundy.”
Sam Kim
96 Points / 100
“This is stunning. Made from their north-facing, high-density (5,000 vines per hectare), clay-rich vineyard in the Brancott district, this is exquisitely styled displaying complex aromas of stone fruit, grapefruit, almond and flint on the nose. The palate is superbly concentrated and focused, yet expansive and generous at the same time, with rich texture and seamlessly integrated acidity. The finish is exceptionally long and engaging"