2025 Forest Hill Block 8 Chardonnay | Great Southern | 97 Points

🏆 97 Points | 40-Year-Old Dry-Grown Vines – One of Western Australia's Greatest Chardonnay Vineyards!

97 Points - Vinous | 96 Points – Ray Jordan | 95 Points – The Wine Front | 95 Points – Halliday Wine Companion | 95 Points – Robert Parker Wine Advocate

An Extraordinary Chardonnay from a Vineyard That Helped Put the Great Southern on the Australian Wine Map!

2025 Forest Hill Vineyard Block 8 Chardonnay

Mount Barker, Great Southern, Western Australia

RRP $65

What happens when you take Chardonnay from 40-year-old, dry-grown vines on one of Western Australia's most historic vineyards and give the fruit the sort of attention usually reserved for Australia's most expensive Chardonnays?

You get one hell of a Chardonnay!

And that's exactly what we have here.

2025 Forest Hill Vineyard Block 8 Chardonnay.

This wine is absolutely sensational.

And look at the scores!

97 POINTS - VINOUS

96 POINTS – RAY JORDAN!

95 POINTS – CAMPBELL MATTINSON, THE WINE FRONT!

95 POINTS – MIKE BENNIE, HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION!

95 POINTS – ERIN LARKIN, ROBERT PARKER WINE ADVOCATE!

Four outstanding reviews.

One extraordinary vineyard.

And a Chardonnay that demonstrates why Western Australia's Great Southern is producing some of the most exciting cool-climate wines in the country.

But here's the really fascinating part.

The vines were planted in 1985.

They're dry-grown.

And the fruit comes from carefully selected rows at the top of a hillside block.

This is serious single-vineyard Chardonnay with genuine history.

And at an RRP of $65, I think it represents exceptional quality for the money.

Forest Hill – A Vineyard That Helped Create the Great Southern Wine Region

Here's something many wine lovers wouldn't know.

Forest Hill Vineyard was established in 1965.

That's more than 60 years ago.

At the time, the Great Southern wasn't the celebrated wine region we know today.

In fact, its suitability for premium wine grapes was still being explored.

Forest Hill was one of the pioneering vineyards planted as part of that early development.

The original plantings helped demonstrate that the cool conditions around Mount Barker could produce wines of exceptional quality.

And the vineyard became an important part of Western Australian wine history.

Today, Forest Hill remains one of the region's great names.

Its historic Riesling vines are particularly famous.

But the Chardonnay is every bit as exciting.

And the Block 8 Chardonnay is one of the estate's flagship wines.

Block 8 – Planted in 1985 and Dry-Grown

This is where things get really interesting.

Block 8 was planted in 1985.

The vines are now approximately 40 years old.

And they're dry-grown.

That means the vines rely on natural rainfall rather than routine irrigation.

In a suitable vineyard, dry-growing can encourage a carefully balanced relationship between vine growth, soil moisture and fruit production.

And mature vines with established root systems can produce beautifully concentrated fruit.

But there's another important detail.

The Block 8 Chardonnay comes from selected rows at the top of an east-facing hillside.

Not simply any fruit from the vineyard.

The fruit is carefully selected from a particular part of the block.

The topography, aspect and soil conditions help create a distinctive expression of Chardonnay.

And the result is a wine with remarkable intensity, freshness and mineral structure.

This is what great single-vineyard wine is all about.

Mount Barker – One of Australia's Great Cool-Climate Chardonnay Districts

The Mount Barker district is one of the most important wine-growing areas in Western Australia's Great Southern region.

Its climate is considerably cooler than many of Australia's warmer wine regions.

And that's particularly important for Chardonnay.

The long growing season allows fruit flavours to develop gradually.

Cool conditions help preserve natural acidity.

And the best vineyards can produce Chardonnay with a wonderful combination of concentration and finesse.

The finest wines often display:

Fresh lemon and grapefruit.

White peach and nectarine.

Fine savoury complexity.

Beautiful natural acidity.

Chalky mineral structure.

And extraordinary length.

Forest Hill Block 8 is a wonderful example of that style.

The 2025 Vintage – A Beautifully Balanced Growing Season

The 2025 vintage followed a warm winter, with early budburst across the vineyard.

Good rainfall in August was particularly important.

But spring was exceptionally dry.

There were some frost events, although the estate's frost protection helped limit their impact.

Summer remained dry.

However, unlike the preceding 2024 vintage, the season avoided significant heat spikes.

That distinction matters enormously for Chardonnay.

The fruit had the opportunity to develop flavour without the same extremes of heat.

And the resulting wines show excellent concentration and beautiful natural acidity.

For Block 8, it was a particularly successful year.

Winemaking – An Extraordinary Level of Detail

Here's something I love about the way Forest Hill makes Block 8 Chardonnay.

The fruit isn't simply harvested, crushed and put into barrels.

Far from it.

Small parcels were hand-harvested over three separate days.

The whole bunches were chilled overnight.

Then carefully hand-sorted.

And gently pressed.

The juice, retaining a high level of solids, was transferred into a selection of French oak vessels.

These included:

Barriques.

Hogsheads.

Puncheons.

Approximately 25% of the oak was new.

Fermentation took place using indigenous yeasts.

The fermentations began under cool conditions before being allowed to proceed at ambient temperatures.

Following fermentation, the barrels received a short period of lees stirring.

And some natural malolactic fermentation was encouraged.

The objective?

Beautiful fruit purity.

Fine texture.

Subtle oak complexity.

And extraordinary natural acidity.

It's a thoughtful approach that allows the vineyard to remain the star.

Tasting Notes – Lemon Curd, Grilled Nectarine, Flint and Extraordinary Precision

The 2025 Forest Hill Block 8 Chardonnay is an absolutely gorgeous wine.

The aromatics reveal a beautiful combination of:

• White peach

• Fresh lemon zest

• Lemon curd

• Grapefruit

• Grilled white nectarine

• Subtle nougat

• Brioche

• Flint

• Fine spice

• Delicate savoury complexity

The palate is extraordinary.

There's beautiful fruit concentration.

But the wine never feels heavy.

Fresh lemon and grapefruit provide wonderful energy.

Grilled nectarine adds richness and depth.

A little nougat and brioche contribute savoury complexity.

And then comes the texture.

Fine.

Precise.

Beautifully integrated.

There's a lovely chalky grip that gives the wine structure.

And the acidity?

Absolutely magnificent!

It drives the wine through the palate and into a wonderfully long, saline finish.

**Lemon curd. Grapefruit. White nectarine. Nougat.