Dexter Chardonnay 2023

Tod Dexter purchased a vineyard site at Tuerong on the Mornington Peninsula in 1987 and planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. He became winemaker at Stonier and then Yabby Lake and during that period the Dexter Vineyard provided Stonier with reserve-grade fruit. Almost 20 years later, and with a wealth of experience behind him, he started his own label. What he strives for in his Chardonnay is what he looks for in any wine he drinks - aromatics, prettiness, texture, elegance, line and length.

"Fragrant grapefruit, oyster shell and green cashew aromas. Bright and lively on entry, fruit is lemon and peach with a lift of acidity that accentuates saline minerality, a touch of struck flint too. Great length and sits with poise and detail. As it lingers a hint of nougat shines through: this will no doubt build over time."  Stuart Knox

Expert reviews

"Light lemon yellow hue. Fragrant grapefruit, oyster shell and green cashew aromas. Bright and lively on entry, fruit is lemon and peach with a lift of acidity that accentuates saline minerality, a touch of struck flint too. Great length and sits with poise and detail. As it lingers a hint of nougat shines through: this will no doubt build over time. Drink: 2024-2034."  Stuart Knox, The Real Review - 95 points

"Supple and succulent white of stone fruit, particularly peach, some vanilla cream, a sense of inward concentration and depth, brown sugar oatmeal, faint peanut brittle (very faint), with some flinty, saline mineral characters and a talc-like pucker and tickle of brine through this long finish. A sense of glossiness too. It’s shiny. It’s bright. It holds restraint amongst all this. An elegant and thirst-quenching thing going on. Very good. Drink: 2024-2032."  Mike Bennie, The Wine Front - 94 points

"A pared-back style and deliciously savoury, with a hint of white stone fruit and lemon, a thin layer of lees and a light spray of sulphides turning on the mouth-watering aspect of this wine. The oak in the background, the fine acidity leading this. More time in bottle will bolster the palate and allow some more fruit characters and complexity to come through. Drink by 2033."  Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion - 92 points

About the winery

Tod Dexter, the man behind the Dexter label, grew up with wine. A childhood friendship with one of Melbourne's premium wine merchants, the Crittenden family, introduced him to the vast world of wine. It was then no surprise that in 1974 after working a ski season in the US, Tod ended up in the Napa Valley where he spent a seven-year apprenticeship with one of California's premium family wineries, Cakebread Cellars. During that period he met his wife Debbie, and the two of them started to toy with the idea of setting up in Australia. Back-to-back vintages at Brown Brothers in the King Valley in 1985 and '86 served as a trial.

Tod moved home to Australia in January 1987 and purchased a vineyard site at Tuerong on the Mornington Peninsula. Later that year, he planted 1.6 hectares of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. To keep the wolves from the door he became winemaker at Stonier and over the next ten years, he and Brian Stonier grew the company to become one of Australia's premium producers of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. During this decade Tod leased his vineyard to Stonier and the Dexter vineyard provided them with reserve-grade fruit.

Dexter left Stonier in 2003 to take the reins at Yabby Lake, whose vineyards are a stone's throw from his own. In 2006 he turned 50. A friend told him if he didn't do his own thing now, it'd never happen. So almost 20 years after the first vines in the Dexter vineyard were planted, and with a wealth of experience behind him, Dexter Wines was born. His vineyard is planted to 4 hectares of Pinot Noir and 3.1 hectares of Chardonnay and he makes roughly the same quantity of each.