Murdoch Hill Rocket Chardonnay 2023

For the first time, Rocket is a single-vineyard wine. A couple of years back, the Downer family purchased Lenswood Vineyard, an 18-hectare property in the Lenswood subregion of the Adelaide Hills. Initially planted in 1989, this beautiful site is perched at 500 metres and is home to some of the oldest vines in the area. Since taking over the property, Downer and his team have worked tirelessly to bring farming and fruit quality at this already revered site up to the exacting Murdoch Hill standards. That work has quickly paid off.

The site is home to a tapestry of clones, but Downer chose a mix of the original 1989 I10v1 vines (own-rooted and low-yielding on a steep, east-facing slope) and B76 vines planted in 2000 in the western Forest block for the 2023 edition. In terms of style, Downer tells us Lenswood and its clonal mix make for a wine of grace, purity and openness while maintaining racy freshness and lithe structure.

The fruit was pressed as bunches to tight-grained barrels (mostly puncheons, 50% new) for fermentation. The wine went through full malolactic conversion with occasional lees stirring throughout an eight-month maturation in wood. The wine was blended and matured for a further few months in tank before bottling. It’s another striking, high-octane model and a world-class Chardonnay.