Nikau Farm Wines Gippsland ‘Ceramic’ Chardonnay 2024

Dane Johns has carved a formidable reputation making some of Australia's best natural wines. His hugely popular Momento Mori wines have a cult following and it's not hard to see why. The Nikau Farms wines are from Dane and Hannah's Gippsland vineyards.

This vineyard, sitting on the banks of the Nicholson river, was instrumental in putting Gippsland Chardonnay on the map in the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s (just ask Max Allen) and now has an average vine age of 47 years.

The vines are dry grown and farmed using sustainable, organic practices (not certified). The soils as you would expect are alluvial gravels and clays (from silt). It is cropped extremely low at approximately 0.8t to the acre and is entirely comprised of the p58 clone. This clone was one of the first Chardonnay clones brought into Australia, in 1958 in fact (from France). It is itself naturally low cropping and generally produces a very fine, complex wine leaning toward the lemon and lime spectrum.