2025 Medhurst Yarra Valley Chardonnay | 96 Point Halliday Special Value Chardonnay

🔥 96 Point Yarra Valley Chardonnay | Absolutely Ridiculous Value at $37.50

This is exactly why I am so excited about the Medhurst wines.

White peach. Citrus. Flint. Sea spray. Beautiful oak. Fine acidity. Serious length.

96 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

 

Estate-Grown Yarra Valley Chardonnay | Precision, Purity & Exceptional Value

A genuinely serious Yarra Valley Chardonnay for under $40. This is one of those wines that makes you wonder why you'd need to spend twice the money.

The 2025 has been awarded an outstanding 96 points by Philip Rich for Halliday Wine Companion, who praised its white peach, lightly grilled nut and sea-spray characters, together with a palate that's tightly wound before opening beautifully with precision and length.

And the RRP?

$37.50.

That's the killer.

96 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

This is not simply a good-value Chardonnay.

It's a seriously good Chardonnay that happens to be ridiculously well priced.

Halliday's Philip Rich awarded the wine:

96 POINTS

The fruit is entirely estate grown and was whole-bunch pressed into a combination of puncheons, hogsheads and barriques, with just 18% new oak. Rich describes a wine with white peach, subtle grilled-nut complexity and a saline edge, before a palate that starts tightly coiled and gradually expands with impressive detail and length.

That's an enormous review for a Chardonnay at this price.

The Medhurst Estate – Gruyere

Medhurst's vineyard sits at Gruyere in the heart of the Yarra Valley, on ancient mountain-derived soils.

The 150-hectare property was planted to just 12.3 hectares of vines in 2000, with individual blocks deliberately positioned according to aspect, soil, exposure and variety.

Vineyard elevations range from approximately:

130–208 metres.

It's a relatively small vineyard operation with an intense focus on site.

And that's showing in the wines.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: Brilliant, luminous pale green-gold.

Aroma: Immediately attractive. White peach, citrus blossom, grapefruit and orange citrus combine with wet stone, sea spray, lightly grilled nuts and subtle flinty reduction.

Palate: There's lovely flesh here without heaviness. Crunchy peach, lemon curd and white nectarine form the core, framed by delicate spicy oak and a fine, almost talc-like acidity.

Texture: Beautifully judged. There's enough weight to make the wine satisfying, but the acidity and mineral character keep everything focused and energetic.

Finish: Fine, detailed and seriously long, with citrus, stone fruit and mineral notes carrying right through.

This is proper Yarra Valley Chardonnay.

Rohan Smith – Medhurst Is Flying

There's another part of the Medhurst story that's worth paying attention to.

Rohan Smith took over as Head Winemaker in 2023.

Halliday Wine Companion specifically notes that there was significant expectation on Smith to continue the estate's trajectory after Simon Steele — and concludes simply:

“Rohan has excelled.”

And look at what's happening with these wines.

For the 2026 Halliday Companion, seven of eight Medhurst wines reviewed received gold-medal scores.

Even more remarkably:

Seven received Halliday's Special Value rosette.

That tells you something.

Medhurst isn't just making excellent wine.

They're making excellent wine at prices people can actually afford.

The Winemaking

The 2025 was picked in the cool of the morning in February from a combination of Mendoza and I10V1 Chardonnay clones.

The fruit was cooled overnight before pressing the following morning.

The juice then spent approximately 24 hours in tank before being transferred to barrel with full solids for fermentation.

The wine underwent partial malolactic fermentation before maturation in predominantly seasoned oak, with only around:

15–18% new oak.

That restraint matters.

The oak isn't the flavour.

The Chardonnay is.

It provides texture, spice and complexity while allowing the white peach, citrus and mineral characters to remain beautifully clear.

The Sweet Spot of Modern Yarra Chardonnay

This is exactly the style of Australian Chardonnay I want to drink.

Not overripe.

Not buttery.

Not drowning in oak.

And not so lean and acidic that the fruit disappears.

Instead you get:

White Peach

Lemon & Grapefruit

Citrus Blossom

Wet Stone

Sea Spray

Subtle Grilled Nuts

Delicate Spicy Oak

Fine, Talcy Acidity

There's enough flesh to make it delicious now.

But enough structure to make it interesting.

That's the sweet spot.

And Then There's the Price…

This is where Medhurst becomes very hard to beat.

The winery currently lists the 2025 Chardonnay at $40, while Halliday recorded a tasting price of $38.

Your RRP:

$37.50.

For a:

96-point

estate-grown

Yarra Valley Chardonnay

from one of Halliday's Top 100 Australian Wineries

that is extraordinary buying. Medhurst was ranked #64 in Halliday's Top 100 Wineries 2025.

And This Is Why I Love These Entry-Level Medhurst Wines

Calling this “entry level” almost feels wrong.

Because there's nothing entry-level about the quality.

This is exactly what makes the Medhurst range so exciting.

The prices are modest.

The wines aren't.

At $37.50, you're getting the sort of precision, fruit quality and sophistication that I'd normally expect to see considerably further up the price ladder.

And that's precisely why these wines are so easy to recommend.

Food Pairings

• Roast chicken
• Grilled snapper
• Seared scallops
• Kingfish
• Prawn linguine
• Pork katsu
• Moreton Bay bugs
• Mushroom risotto
• Grilled calamari
• Comté

Or forget the food.

Big Chardonnay glass. Slight chill. Done.

Cellaring

Halliday's review gives the wine a drinking horizon through:

2032.

It's already going to be delicious young, but the combination of acidity, fruit intensity and restrained oak gives it the structure to develop beautifully over the medium term.

I'd happily drink it over the next:

5–7 years.

Why We Love It

This is an absolute no-brainer.

You're getting:

100% Chardonnay

All estate-grown fruit

Gruyere, Yarra Valley

Whole-bunch pressed

Puncheons, hogsheads & barriques

Only 18% new oak

Fine, precise natural acidity

96 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

Medhurst – Halliday Top 100 Winery

And the RRP?

$37.50.

That's outstanding.

There are plenty of very good Australian Chardonnays around $35–$40.

There aren't many 96-point Chardonnays at $37.50 that taste this serious.

That's the difference.

The 2025 Medhurst Yarra Valley Chardonnay has everything I want from modern Yarra Chardonnay — white peach, citrus, flint, subtle oak, texture, acidity and genuine length.

And it's under forty dollars.

Pure. Flinty. Textural. Precise. Ridiculous value.

96 Points Halliday. Estate Grown. Yarra Valley. $37.50 RRP.

👉 This is a six-pack wine all day long. One of the strongest-value Chardonnays I've seen at this price and a brilliant example of why Medhurst should be firmly on everyone's radar.