The 2022 Reserve Chardonnay is involved and inchoate at this stage in its life. It is taut, tense and fine but set against a backdrop of concentration and density of stone fruit flavors. 2022 was a hot year, and the Chardonnay wines I have seen from barrel so far (over 100) show a softness of acidity and bold fruit drive that I have seen similarly in the Chardonnays from the 2014 vintage. Crushed nuts and yellow fruit dominate this wine and show an abundance of fruit. It is almost buxom, certainly rich, with loads of flavor. Acid pert as always. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

The 2021 season is coming up trumps on the Chardonnay front. Lighter-framed and polished phenolics sits alongside finer fruit in this year, and the 2021 Reserve Chardonnay fits exactly within this mould. It offers cut fennel, freshly picked curry leaves, layers of brine, preserved citrus and pith. This is a really smart wine. It turns out that I am thoroughly enjoying the Reserve Chardonnay in cooler years. Exciting revelation. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

2020 was a warm and compressed growing season, and the wines made from that year are concentrated and firm. This 2020 Reserve Chardonnay is everything I'd expect from the combination of the warm season and the Fermoy house style. Tense, tangy acidity backs the juicy, fleshy fruit. It is all class, concentrated and focused. It is packed, in every which way, with flavor and intensity. It has notes of pan-fried, toasted, crushed nuts. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

From another cool vintage, the 2019 Reserve Chardonnay is spicy and taut, the fruit stretched over a gossamer web of tangy acidity. This is not tart, lemon tang, rather the electrifying, juicy, jolt of Valencia orange at the peak of the season. There are notes of pink grapefruit, curry leaf, cut fennel, sea spray, nashi pear and preserved citrus. This is a super wine. It's austere almost—and it's good for it. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

2017 was a cold, wet vintage in Margaret River, and the wines, especially the Chardonnays, feel worked, complex and full. This is when the modern Fermoy Estate style of Chardonnay really started to emerge as I see it, and this wine, now six years old, is showing the svelte lines and graceful aging that the house is becoming known for. Tight, pink grapefruit acid curls around the corners of fleshy yellow peach and layers of exotic spice. Fermented wild in tight-grained French oak, the 2017 Reserve Chardonnay is complex, toasty, fresh, layered and exciting. Utterly exciting, actually. Really good! 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.