2025 Deep Woods Estate Single Vineyard Chardonnay | Margaret River Premium Chardonnay

🏆 95 Points | Margaret River Chardonnay with Extraordinary Coastal Minerality!

95 Points – The Wine Front | 95 Points – Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

From the Remarkable Cape Falls Vineyard in Wilyabrup – A New Chapter for Deep Woods Single Vineyard Chardonnay!

2025 Deep Woods Estate Single Vineyard Chardonnay

Margaret River, Western Australia

RRP $55

What happens when one of Margaret River's most accomplished winemaking teams gets its hands on exceptional Chardonnay fruit from a vineyard sitting close to the Indian Ocean?

You get one hell of a Chardonnay!

And that's exactly what we have here with the 2025 Deep Woods Estate Single Vineyard Chardonnay.

This is a seriously exciting wine.

From the remarkable Cape Falls vineyard in northern Wilyabrup, it combines beautiful citrus and stone fruit with crushed shell, sea spray, toasted cashew and extraordinary saline minerality.

And look at the scores!

95 POINTS – THE WINE FRONT!

95 POINTS – ROBERT PARKER'S WINE ADVOCATE!

But here's what makes this particular vintage so fascinating.

The vineyard has changed!

Previous vintages of this wine came from the Bridgelands vineyard in Karridale, one of Margaret River's cooler southern districts.

Unfortunately, that vineyard was removed.

For the 2025 release, Deep Woods turned to the Cape Falls vineyard in northern Wilyabrup.

A different location.

A different coastal influence.

And a fascinating new expression of Margaret River Chardonnay.

At an RRP of $55, this is seriously compelling drinking.

The Vineyard – Cape Falls, Northern Wilyabrup

This is where the story becomes particularly interesting.

The Cape Falls vineyard is situated in northern Wilyabrup, close to the coast.

It's a closely planted vineyard, with the Indian Ocean playing an important role in moderating temperatures.

And that coastal influence is one of the defining characteristics of the wine.

The vineyard produces Chardonnay with beautiful fruit concentration, but also remarkable natural acidity and a distinctive saline character.

Think of the finest cool-climate Chardonnays.

Beautiful fruit.

Fine texture.

Fresh acidity.

And that wonderful mineral tension that makes you want another glass.

That's exactly what makes this site so exciting.

Tasting Notes – Sea Spray, Crushed Shell and Beautiful Citrus Precision

This is a Chardonnay with a fascinating combination of fruit purity, savoury complexity and coastal freshness.

The aromatics reveal:

• Fresh lemon zest

• Tart grapefruit

• White peach and nectarine

• Delicate white flowers

• Sea spray

• Crushed shell and chalk

• Toasted cashew

• Subtle fennel

• Fine French oak

• Gentle flinty complexity

The palate is wonderfully precise.

There's lovely stone fruit concentration, with white peach and citrus providing generous flavour.

But the defining character is the acidity.

Fresh. Saline. Mineral. Beautifully persistent.

The wine has a fine, creamy texture from its time in oak and on lees, but it never feels heavy.

Instead, the fruit is carried along by a wonderful line of mouth-watering acidity.

Subtle toasted cashew and savoury oak provide additional complexity.

And the finish?

Long, focused and wonderfully refreshing.

Lemon zest. Grapefruit. White peach. Toasted cashew. Crushed shell. Sea spray. Extraordinary mineral length.

This is a Chardonnay that combines concentration with beautiful restraint.

95 Points – The Wine Front

The 2025 Deep Woods Estate Single Vineyard Chardonnay has received an outstanding:

95 POINTS – THE WINE FRONT

A tremendous endorsement for a Chardonnay at this price.

It's exactly the sort of score that makes us pay attention, particularly when the wine comes from a producer with such a strong reputation for Chardonnay.

95 Points – Erin Larkin, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

And there's another excellent review.

95 POINTS – ROBERT PARKER'S WINE ADVOCATE

Erin Larkin highlights the new Cape Falls vineyard source and the wine's distinctive coastal personality.

Her assessment emphasises the combination of gentle reductive complexity, spice, orchard fruit and beautifully saline acidity.

The oak provides structure and length without overwhelming the fruit.

She also identifies the wine as particularly tightly wound in its youth, suggesting that a little bottle age will allow it to become even more expressive.

That's a wonderful endorsement from one of Australia's most respected wine critics.

Deep Woods Estate – One of Margaret River's Great Modern Success Stories

Deep Woods Estate has become one of the most respected producers in Margaret River.

Established in 1987, the winery sits in the beautiful Yallingup Hills.

In 2005, the estate became part of the Fogarty Wine Group, which invested heavily in improving vineyard quality and winemaking.

The results have been extraordinary.

Deep Woods has developed an outstanding reputation for Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, with its Reserve wines regularly attracting some of Australia's highest critical scores.

And much of that success has been associated with the work of celebrated winemaker Julian Langworthy and the broader Deep Woods winemaking team.

The winery's philosophy places enormous emphasis on vineyard selection.

Finding exceptional parcels of fruit.

Understanding what makes each site distinctive.

And producing wines that reflect those individual vineyard characteristics.

The Single Vineyard Chardonnay is a perfect example.

Margaret River – One of the World's Great Chardonnay Regions

Margaret River is one of the most extraordinary places in the world for Chardonnay.

And it's not difficult to understand why.

The region enjoys a remarkable maritime climate, with the Indian Ocean helping moderate temperatures throughout the growing season.

Warm days allow grapes to develop flavour concentration.

Cooler conditions help retain natural acidity.

And the long growing season creates the opportunity for beautiful aromatic and textural complexity.

The finest Margaret River Chardonnays combine:

Stone fruit richness.

Citrus freshness.

Fine French oak.

Savoury complexity.

Mineral precision.

And extraordinary length.

It's a combination that has helped establish Margaret River among the world's great Chardonnay regions.

And the 2025 Deep Woods Single Vineyard is a wonderful example.

The Gin Gin Clone – A Margaret River Chardonnay Legend

Here's something many wine drinkers don't realise.

Much of Margaret River's Chardonnay reputation has been built around one particularly important selection of Chardonnay.

The Gin Gin clone.

Also known as Mendoza, this selection is famous for producing small berries and distinctive variations in berry size within bunches, sometimes described as hen and chicken.

That characteristic can contribute to fruit concentration and complexity.

The clone has become enormously important in Margaret River, where it can produce Chardonnay with beautiful citrus intensity, stone fruit concentration and natural acidity.

The 2025 Deep Woods Single Vineyard Chardonnay is made from Gin Gin clone fruit.

And the result is a wonderful demonstration of why this selection has become so celebrated.

Winemaking – Wild Fermentation and French Oak

The winemaking is thoughtful and beautifully considered.

The Chardonnay fruit was carefully selected and gently pressed, with only the free-run juice used.

Fermentation occurred naturally using indigenous yeasts in Burgundian oak barrels.

Approximately 30% of the oak was new.

The wine then spent around 10 months on lees, developing texture and savoury complexity.

The result is a Chardonnay that combines fruit purity with beautiful mouthfeel and subtle oak integration.

The oak adds complexity.

But it doesn't dominate.

The vineyard remains the star.

And that's exactly what great Chardonnay should be about.

The 2025 Vintage – Beautiful Balance and Natural Acidity

Margaret River enjoyed favourable conditions for Chardonnay in 2025.

Following adequate winter rainfall, spring conditions encouraged healthy vine growth.

The growing season then became relatively warm and dry, allowing Chardonnay to develop excellent flavour concentration.

The best wines have emerged with beautiful fruit purity and balanced natural acidity.

And the Deep Woods Single Vineyard Chardonnay demonstrates those qualities wonderfully.

There's concentration.

There's texture.

But also freshness and mineral definition.

Richness without heaviness.

Complexity without excess.

And beautiful precision from start to finish.

A Chardonnay for Lovers of Great White Burgundy

If you love Chardonnay from:

Chablis

Puligny-Montrachet

Saint-Aubin

Meursault

or Australia's finest cool-climate regions, this wine deserves your attention.

Not because it's trying to imitate Burgundy.

But because it shares so many of the qualities that make great Chardonnay compelling.

Fine acidity.

Beautiful fruit.

Subtle oak.

Savoury complexity.

And that extraordinary sense of mineral precision.

The 2025 Deep Woods Single Vineyard is a wonderful example of how sophisticated Margaret River Chardonnay has become.

Food Pairings

This is a magnificent food wine.

Try it with:

• Grilled Western Australian dhufish

• King George whiting

• Fresh scallops

• Roast chicken with lemon and herbs

• Grilled crayfish

• Lobster with beurre blanc

• Mushroom risotto

• Roast pork

• Comté or Gruyère

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

The wine's saline freshness and citrus acidity would be absolutely sensational.

Cellaring Potential

The 2025 Deep Woods Single Vineyard Chardonnay is already a beautifully structured wine.

But it's still young.

Its combination of fruit concentration, natural acidity and oak integration suggests that a little patience will be rewarded.

Suggested drinking window: 2026–2032.

I'd happily open a bottle now, but I'd also put some away for a few years.

With time, expect the youthful citrus and stone fruit characters to develop deeper toasted nut, biscuit and savoury complexity.

Why We Love It at Liquid Vibe

Because this is exactly what makes discovering great Australian Chardonnay so exciting.

A celebrated Margaret River producer.

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