2025 Decades Chardonnay | Coal River Valley, Tasmania | Halliday Winemaker of the Year

🏆 Halliday Winemaker of the Year AND Best New Winery! Tasmania's Extraordinary Decades Chardonnay!

2027 Halliday Wine Companion Winemaker of the Year – Steve Flamsteed

2027 Halliday Wine Companion Best New Winery – Decades Wines

Previous Vintage: 97 Points The Real Review | 96 Points Halliday Wine Companion | 95+ Points The Wine Front

2025 Decades Chardonnay – NEW RELEASE

Coal River Valley, Tasmania

RRP $85

What happens when the former chief winemaker of Giant Steps joins forces with one of the founders of Stone & Wood Brewing, buys an extraordinary old vineyard in Tasmania, and creates a wine label that goes on to win TWO of Australia's most prestigious wine awards?

You get DECADES!

And believe me, this is one of the most exciting new wine producers in Australia.

The story is absolutely fascinating.

Two mates.

A friendship spanning more than 35 years.

A shared love of great wine and alternative music.

A historic vineyard in Tasmania's Coal River Valley.

And a Chardonnay that has already established itself among the country's most exciting cool-climate wines.

And now look at what they've achieved!

2027 HALLIDAY WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR – STEVE FLAMSTEED!

2027 HALLIDAY BEST NEW WINERY – DECADES!

That's an extraordinary achievement for a winery whose first vintage was only 2023.

And the Chardonnay?

The previous 2024 vintage attracted these outstanding scores:

97 POINTS – THE REAL REVIEW!

96 POINTS – HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION!

95+ POINTS – THE WINE FRONT!

Now we have the brand-new 2025 Decades Chardonnay.

And there's another reason to get excited.

Only 200 cartons were produced!

This is serious, small-production Tasmanian Chardonnay from one of Australia's most accomplished winemakers.

And at an RRP of $85, it's a wine every serious Chardonnay lover should know about.

Decades – A Friendship More Than 35 Years in the Making

This is one of my favourite stories in Australian wine.

Steve Flamsteed and Brad Rogers met in 1991 at Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia.

They were both young Queenslanders studying wine.

And they quickly discovered they had plenty in common.

Great wine.

Music.

And a shared enthusiasm for bands such as Joy Division.

They became great mates.

But their careers took them in very different directions.

Steve went on to become one of Australia's most celebrated winemakers.

Brad became one of the country's most successful craft brewers.

Yet throughout the decades, they kept talking about doing something together.

Owning a vineyard.

Making their own wines.

Creating something genuinely special.

And eventually, more than 30 years after first meeting, they made it happen.

Decades Wines was born.

Even the name has a fascinating story.

It's partly a reference to their decades-long friendship.

Partly a nod to the age of their vineyard.

And partly inspired by the Joy Division song Decades.

How good is that?

Steve Flamsteed – 2027 Halliday Winemaker of the Year

If you love great Australian Chardonnay, you'll know Steve Flamsteed.

For approximately 20 years, Steve was the chief winemaker at Giant Steps in the Yarra Valley.

And during that time, Giant Steps became one of Australia's most celebrated producers of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Its single-vineyard wines demonstrated just how extraordinary cool-climate Australian Chardonnay could be.

Beautiful fruit concentration.

Extraordinary natural acidity.

Fine mineral structure.

Subtle oak.

And wonderful vineyard individuality.

Steve was instrumental in establishing that reputation.

Today, he works across a number of exciting projects, including Decades, Salo and consulting assignments with premium Australian wineries.

And in August 2026, his remarkable career was recognised with one of the highest honours in Australian wine.

2027 HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR!

An extraordinary achievement.

And a wonderful endorsement of the talent behind this Chardonnay.

Brad Rogers – The Man Behind Stone & Wood Brewing

Here's where the story becomes even more interesting.

Steve's business partner, Brad Rogers, was one of the founders of Stone & Wood Brewing.

Stone & Wood became one of Australia's most successful craft beer businesses, famous for its Pacific Ale.

After the brewery was sold to Lion in 2021, Brad finally had the opportunity to pursue the vineyard dream he'd discussed with Steve for decades.

And the two friends began looking for somewhere special.

They found it in Tasmania.

More specifically, the Coal River Valley.

And they knew they had something extraordinary.

The Vineyard – A Historic Site in Tasmania's Coal River Valley

In 2022, Steve and Brad acquired a vineyard at Tea Tree in the Coal River Valley.

The original vines were planted around 1990.

That makes this a mature vineyard by Australian cool-climate standards.

And mature vines can be a wonderful asset.

Over time, their established root systems and natural balance can contribute to consistent fruit quality and complexity.

The original vineyard comprised approximately three hectares of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Since acquiring the property, Steve and Brad have expanded the plantings, predominantly with Pinot Noir, while retaining the established vines as the foundation of their premium wines.

But here's what makes the location particularly exciting.

The vineyard is in the same remarkable district as Tolpuddle and Stargazer.

Two names that serious Tasmanian Chardonnay lovers will know very well.

The Coal River Valley has become one of Australia's most important regions for premium Chardonnay.

And Decades is another extraordinary producer helping demonstrate its potential.

Coal River Valley – One of Australia's Great Chardonnay Regions

Tasmania has become one of the most exciting places in the world for cool-climate Chardonnay.

But the Coal River Valley is particularly special.

Located northeast of Hobart, the region combines relatively dry growing conditions with long summer daylight hours and the cooling influence of Tasmania's southern latitude.

That creates wonderful conditions for Chardonnay.

The grapes can develop excellent flavour concentration while retaining the natural acidity that gives the finest wines their precision and longevity.

And the best examples can be absolutely magnificent.

Beautiful citrus fruit.

White peach.

Fine savoury complexity.

Mineral freshness.

And extraordinary length.

It's no surprise that producers such as Tolpuddle, Stargazer and now Decades have attracted so much attention.

This is a region producing Chardonnay of genuine international quality.

The 2025 Vintage – A Beautifully Cool, Long Growing Season

Here's something particularly interesting about the new release.

Steve and Brad describe 2025 as a wonderfully long, cool growing season.

The grapes remained on the vines longer than average, allowing flavours to develop slowly and evenly.

Intermittent rainfall helped maintain vine health.

And the cool temperatures preserved excellent natural acidity.

For Chardonnay, that's an exciting combination.

Slow ripening can contribute to aromatic complexity.

Extended hang time allows flavours to develop.

And retained acidity provides the structure that makes great cool-climate Chardonnay so compelling.

The result is a wine built around purity, precision and balance.

Winemaking – Beautifully Simple, Thoughtfully Executed

One of the things I love about Decades is the restraint in its winemaking.

Steve Flamsteed has enormous experience making world-class Chardonnay.

But that doesn't mean he wants to impose an elaborate winemaking recipe on the fruit.

Quite the opposite.

For the 2025 Chardonnay, the approach was deliberately simple.

The fruit was:

Hand-picked.

Carefully sorted.

Whole-bunch pressed.

And transferred directly into large-format, seasoned French oak barrels.

Fermentation occurred naturally using wild yeasts.

Approximately half the barrels underwent spontaneous malolactic fermentation.

The other half retained their sharper malic-acid profile.

That's a fascinating combination.

It allows the wine to develop beautiful texture and subtle richness while retaining the vibrant citrus acidity that defines the vineyard.

And the oak?

Seasoned French oak.

Not a wine dominated by new barrels.

The emphasis is on fruit purity, mineral structure and elegance.

The wine was bottled on 4 February 2026.

And production was tiny.

Only 200 cartons.

Tasting Profile – Citrus Purity, Mineral Precision and Beautiful Texture

The 2025 Decades Chardonnay is all about elegance.

This is not an enormous, heavily oaked Chardonnay.

It's a wine that places freshness, purity and balance at the centre of the experience.

Expect:

• Fresh lemon and lemon zest

• Grapefruit

• White nectarine

• Delicate white flowers

• Fine mineral character

• Subtle savoury complexity

• Gentle creamy texture

• Beautifully integrated acidity

The palate is refined and beautifully composed.

There's lovely citrus concentration, but also a sense of delicacy.

The partial malolactic fermentation contributes softness and texture.

Yet the wine retains a fine, persistent line of natural acidity.

The mineral structure gives it wonderful definition.

And the finish is long, fresh and beautifully controlled.

Citrus. White nectarine. Fine minerality. Subtle texture. Extraordinary purity.

This is Chardonnay that doesn't need to shout.

Its quality is in its balance.

The Previous Vintage – An Extraordinary Critical Success

The 2024 Decades Chardonnay established just how exciting this vineyard and winemaking partnership could be.

And the critics were seriously impressed.

97 POINTS – THE REAL REVIEW

Huon Hooke praised the wine's depth, energy, intensity and remarkable length.

96 POINTS – HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION

Dave Brookes highlighted its pure fruit, mineral acidity, fine texture and precision.

95+ POINTS – THE WINE FRONT

Another outstanding endorsement for a wine from a producer still in its earliest years.

These are scores for the 2024 vintage, not the newly released 2025.

But they demonstrate the extraordinary pedigree of this vineyard and the remarkable quality Steve and Brad have already achieved.

And that's what makes the 2025 release so exciting.

2027 Halliday Best New Winery – An Extraordinary Achievement

Think about this for a moment.

Decades only released its first wines from the 2023 vintage.

Just a few years later, it was named:

2027 HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION BEST NEW WINERY!

That's a remarkable achievement.

Especially for a winery producing such a small range.

At the time of the award, Decades was focused on just two wines.

Chardonnay.

And Pinot Noir.

No enormous catalogue.

No dozens of different labels.

Just two varieties, one extraordinary Tasmanian property and an obsessive commitment to quality.

And the results have been sensational.

Only 200 Cartons Produced

Here's another reason this Chardonnay deserves attention.

Only 200 cartons of the 2025 Chardonnay were produced.

That's a genuinely small release.

From a winery that has just won Best New Winery.

Made by the newly crowned Winemaker of the Year.

With the previous vintage attracting extraordinary critical acclaim.

I wouldn't expect wines with this sort of pedigree and production volume to remain unnoticed for long.

For Lovers of Great White Burgundy

If you love the finest Chardonnays from Burgundy, particularly those with beautiful mineral precision and restrained oak, this is a wine that deserves your attention.

Think about the qualities that make great white Burgundy so compelling.

Pure citrus fruit.

Beautiful texture.

Fine acidity.

Subtle savoury complexity.

And extraordinary length.

The 2025 Decades Chardonnay shares many of those qualities.

But it's not trying to imitate Burgundy.

It's expressing the Coal River Valley.

And that's exactly what makes it so exciting.

Cellaring Potential

The 2025 Decades Chardonnay is a youthful, beautifully structured wine.

Its natural acidity, mineral precision and restrained winemaking suggest excellent potential for further development.

Suggested drinking window: 2026–2035, depending on storage conditions and personal preference.

I'd happily open a bottle now.

But I'd also put a few away.

As the wine matures, expect the citrus and stone fruit characters to develop deeper savoury, nutty and biscuity complexity.

Serve cool rather than ice-cold, and allow the wine some time to open in the glass.

Food Pairings

This is a magnificent Chardonnay for food.

I'd recommend:

• Fresh Tasmanian scallops

• Southern rock lobster

• King George whiting

• Grilled snapper

• Roast chicken with lemon and thyme

• Mushroom risotto

• Crayfish with beurre blanc

• Comté or Gruyère

Personally, I'd love this with freshly grilled scallops, brown butter and lemon.

The combination of citrus freshness, fine texture and mineral precision would be absolutely sensational.

Why We Love It at Liquid Vibe

Because this wine has one of the most extraordinary stories in Australian Chardonnay.

Two mates who met more than 35 years ago.

One became one of Australia's greatest winemakers.

The other helped build one of the country's most successful craft breweries.

They eventually bought a historic vineyard in Tasmania.

Started making just two wines.

And within a few vintages achieved something remarkable.

HALLIDAY WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR!

HALLIDAY BEST NEW WINERY!

Look at what you're getting.

2025 Decades Chardonnay

Coal River Valley, Tasmania

Historic Vineyard – Original Plantings Around 1990

Winemaker – Steve Flamsteed

Co-Founder – Brad Rogers of Stone & Wood Brewing

2027 Halliday Winemaker of the Year

2027 Halliday Best New Winery

Hand-Picked Fruit

Whole-Bunch Pressed

Wild Yeast Fermentation

Large-Format Seasoned French Oak

Partial Malolactic Fermentation

Only 200 Cartons Produced

Previous Vintage – 97 The Real Review | 96 Halliday | 95+ The Wine Front

RRP $85

This is serious Chardonnay.

A wine with beautiful purity, extraordinary pedigree and a fascinating story.

And one that deserves a place on every serious Australian Chardonnay lover's radar.

2025 DECADES CHARDONNAY – NEW RELEASE

COAL RIVER VALLEY, TASMANIA

2027 HALLIDAY WINEMAKER OF THE YEAR – STEVE FLAMSTEED!

2027 HALLIDAY BEST NEW WINERY – DECADES!

PREVIOUS VINTAGE: 97 THE REAL REVIEW | 96 HALLIDAY | 95+ THE WINE FRONT

ONLY 200 CARTONS PRODUCED!

RRP $85

LEMON. GRAPEFRUIT. WHITE NECTARINE. FINE MINERALITY. BEAUTIFUL TEXTURE. EXTRAORDINARY PRECISION.

ONE OF TASMANIA'S MOST EXCITING NEW CHARDONNAYS – FROM ONE OF AUSTRALIA'S GREATEST WINEMAKERS!