It would certainly surprise most of today’s chardonnay set to learn that Australia’s first commercial release of this variety was the 1971 vintage of what Tyrrell’s habitually called until recently the Vat 47 Pinot Chardonnay. Tyrrell’s also pioneered the other major Burgundian variety of pinot noir, but that is another story. Vat 47 Chardonnay, as it has become known from the release of the 2000 wine, remains one of the best and longest-living of Australian chardonnays. I’ve never had any doubts about its quality, and a recent vertical tasting of wines dating back to the second release of 1972 confirms its longevity. Although its semillon and shiraz have reclaimed their places in recent years as the varieties most ideally suited to the Lower Hunter Valley – with great respect to the cabernet sauvignon-based Lake’s Folly red – Hunter chardonnay has enjoyed its time in the sun. Tyrrell’s, however, makes a wine that is poles apart from the popular conception of the Hunter chardonnay. Medium to full in weight when young, most Hunter chardonnay begins in its youth with flavours of melons, figs, tobacco and peaches, finishing with limey acids. Typically, it will mature quickly into a richly textured and creamy wine, with toasty melon and honeyed flavour. Most Hunter chardonnay would best be opened before it reaches five years of age. Yet that is when most vintages of Vat 47 are just beginning to hit their straps. The reason is that Tyrrell’s have evolved their own idiosyncratic way of making chardonnay, which draws partially from the traditional French experience, partially from old-fashioned Australian winemaking nous and partially from their own perception and innovation. The Vat 47 begins fermentation in stainless steel and is then transferred to a mix of different French oak casks, about a third of which are new. The rest are one and two year-old. Fermentation is let go fairly naturally and at quite high temperatures, after which the wine is left on lees for around four months. Over that period it isn’t heavily worked with battonage, but simply left to lie around. It’s then racked and returned to the same barrels until bottling in September. The total time spent in oak is therefore only around six months or so. Contrast this with the twelve months usually given to its competitors at the sharp end of Australian chardonnay, most of which are given significant battonage, substantially longer lees contact and a full malolactic fermentation. Some barrels, comprising perhaps 10% of Vat 47, would naturally go through a malo prior to bottling, and one suspects that if it was left for longer in oak to warm up over summer that even more might go through. The net result of a wine of youthful fineness, tightness and freshness, typically with a long, complete palate of delightful integration. In many wines these are the key requirements for a long cellaring life. Ratings for Tyrrell’s Vat 47 Chardonnay
