Deep Woods Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2023

James Suckling Top 100 Wines of Australia 2024
Trophy, Best White Wine - 2024 Royal Queensland Wine Awards
Trophy, Best Chardonnay - 2024 Royal Queensland Wine Awards
Trophy, Best Chardonnay - 2024 Royal Hobart Wine Show
Trophy, Best Western Australian Chardonnay - 2024 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards

"My favourite Deep Woods Estate Reserve Chardonnay, ever."  Julian Langworthy, Chief Winemaker

Deep Woods Estate was acquired by the Fogarty family in 2005, making it part of the Fogarty Wine Group. Under the FWG banner, Deep Woods Estate has been transformed into one of Margaret River's most highly regarded wineries. The Deep Woods Estate Reserve Chardonnay is now one of the most awarded Chardonnays in the country and noted critic James Suckling crowned the 2021 vintage as Australia's Top Wine of the Year. Fruit for the 2023 vintage, another exceptional year in Margaret River, was sourced from two premium central Wilyabrup vineyards, with additional fruit from a pristine site in Karridale. 100% Gin Gin clone.

"Let’s cut to the chase. The finest Deep Woods chardonnay yet. It has it all. Great fruit has been harnessed with whole bunch pressing and fermentation in new and seasoned French oak. Further lees stirring has built in texture, contributing to a thoroughly beautiful, refined mouth feel. Opens with stone fruit and savoury light lemon curd aromas. Peels off into a palate that reveals more of a struck match and cracked seashell minerality complementing the outstanding fruit concentration. Super wine."  Ray Jordan

"Of the 24 vintages I have done in Australia, the 2023 vintage stands tall as likely my favourite, and what I see as the best vintage I have experienced to date. 2023 also marks the 11th release of this modern style of our Reserve Chardonnay, which is pretty cool. 2023 was an effortless vintage in Margaret River – not too hot, not too cold, everything was just right, and our Reserve Chardonnay blocks really excelled. This wine has a beautiful purity and lift with sea breeze and funk on the nose, and it's got the most crystalline, tense, long palate you've ever seen. The Reserve Chardonnay wines are really quite balanced in their youth, but they will reward ageing like you would not believe. I'm so excited about this release and I'll be getting lots and lots for my cellar – if it doesn't sell out first! A Chardonnay for the ages and, like the vintage my favourite Deep Woods Estate Reserve Chardonnay, ever."  Julian Langworthy, Chief Winemaker

"Pale straw with cream/pearl hue. An array of complex white florals leads this wine into aromas of scratched citrus, grilled lime and white peach. Beneath the purest of fruit, the wine holds underlying cashew paste, nori and cardamom notes that merge with fennel seed, baked pastry and lemon rind. The palate has brilliant power and tension that is balanced by the sleekest core of fruit, where the wines pedigree rings true. Incredibly long and saline this wine has an effortless journey across the palate. Flavours of white stone fruit, lemon curd and bitter lime are captured by cheese cloth like textures that evolved from whole bunch pressing and an extended time on lees.

The fruit was hand-picked and then chilled to maintain pristine condition. A minimalist approach in the winery included whole bunch pressing, wild fermentation and sparing lees stirring in a mixture of new and seasoned French oak. The individual parcels were kept separate and aged on lees for nine months until the final wine was blended for bottling."  Deep Woods Estate 

Expert reviews

"Let’s cut to the chase. The finest Deep Woods chardonnay yet. It has it all. Great fruit has been harnessed with whole bunch pressing and fermentation in new and seasoned French oak. Further lees stirring has built in texture, contributing to a thoroughly beautiful, refined mouth feel. Opens with stone fruit and savoury light lemon curd aromas. Peels off into a palate that reveals more of a struck match and cracked seashell minerality complementing the outstanding fruit concentration. Super wine. Cellar: 13 years."  Ray Jordan, Ray Jordan Wine - 98 points

"The nose is very flashy and mineral-driven with citrus notes of lime zest, gunsmoke and grapefruit rind. The medium-bodied palate has high-tension acidity with an underlying power, showing notes of lemon peel, shortbread and sea salt. A very classy, tightly wound chardonnay that will unravel for years to come. Exceptional. Drink or hold. Screw cap."  James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com - 97 points and Top 100 Wines of Australia 2024

"I recently tasted these 2023 Chardonnay wines from Deep Woods off the grid - that is to say that no tasting notes were taken, but the impressions were powerful. The 2023 season was one of the most magnificent vintages in Western Australia for its long, mild and dry outlay of growing days. There was some rain at the very end of the harvest period, which did impact some later-ripening reds, but given the year and how it all played out, this was managed well by most. The 2023 Reserve Chardonnay is a true reflection of the year that birthed it; it is elegant, long, coiled and fine, with a palate of concentrated fruit. Most importantly to us, the drinkers, the wine has presence and impact. The acidity is saturating, glassy and crystalline, the fruit is ripe, powerful and restrained, and the phenolic structure that holds it together does so in a pliable, ductile fashion. This is an excellent wine and a wine that I want to drink. Drink:  2024 - 2033."  Erin Larkin, Wine Advocate - 96 points

"This has everything turned up a notch. More depth of fruit, more complexity from the winemaking and more impact from the texturing oak. Here, the citrus has been replaced with the more typical tropical/pineapple acidity. Lees and barrel work add greatly, with minerality and struck match notes really adding to the mix. And there is tremendous length and persistence of flavours. The fruit is primarily from Wilyabrup and spent time in 35% new oak (a combination of barriques, hogs heads and puncheons). A superb wine that deserves to be considered amongst the region’s finest."  Barry Weinman, Fine Wine Club - 96 points

"Winemaker Julian Langworthy says, "This is the best release, ever", and aside from that, I have no other information to hand. Lime, pink grapefruit, quite a lot of cashew, cinnamon pastry, some cut fennel, a wisp of flinty and smoky things. It has intensity and ripe grapefruity acid cut, something more saline and umami here too, bright and chalky in texture, with lime rind and grip on a finish of excellent length. It has zing and energy, though it really needs a few years in bottle to cool its boots and settle into its groove. Drink: 2025 - 2033+."  Gary Walsh, The Wine Front - 95+ points 

Awards

James Suckling Top 100 Wines of Australia 2024
Trophy, Best White Wine - 2024 Royal Queensland Wine Awards
Trophy, Best Chardonnay - 2024 Royal Queensland Wine Awards
Trophy, Best Chardonnay - 2024 Royal Hobart Wine Show
Trophy, Best Western Australian Chardonnay - 2024 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards
Gold Medal – 2024 Sydney Royal Wine Show
Gold Medal - 2024 Royal Hobart Wine Show

About the winery

Deep Woods Estate was established in 1987 with plantings of Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc, Verdelho, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Shiraz and Merlot. With subsequent plantings of Chardonnay and Semillon, there are now approximately 16 hectares (40 acres) under vine planted in 12 separate blocks.

Deep Woods Estate was acquired by the Fogarty family in 2005, making it part of the Fogarty Wine Group. Under the FWG banner, Deep Woods Estate has been transformed into one of Margaret River's most awarded and highly regarded wineries.

The vines are irrigated from the natural spring-fed dam on the estate and flourish in the mainly gravelly loam soil. The cooling summer breezes from Geographe Bay to the north and the Indian Ocean to the west provide the perfect climate for growing premium quality grapes for which the region is renowned.

The Fogarty Wine Group has introduced a new vineyard maintenance program, utilising sustainable vineyard practices, to improve fruit quality and produce lower, higher-quality yields.