Interesting to see Tapanappa using 50% new oak with this wine, when Petaluma use 100% and charge a hell of a lot more for their Tiers Chardonnay, which isn't necessarily any better a wine. The 2008 Tapanappa is quite complex yet bright on the nose, with savoury, nutty accents of grapefruit, melon and lemon. The palate is surprisingly luscious, with a counter balance of good, mouthfilling structure for chardonnay, which is altogether contradicted by a very refined, restrained cool-climate fruit profile. It finishes very long, and should age particularly well. 95 points Australian Wine Journal, 4th of February 2010 Chris Plummer
The hand-harvested Chardonnay from this seminal Adelaide Hills vineyard, first planted by Brian Croser in 1979, stood out for all of our Chardonnay judges for its purity and length. Both Louise and Tom noted "almonds" and "nuts", while straw, peach and lemon grass were some of the other notes. Andrew praised its "grain" and "completeness". The Adelaide Review Hot 100 SA Wines, November 2009 Andrew Jefford
Lively, refined and beautifully focused, showing citrus, pineapple and green berry flavors that linger on the deft, complex finish. Best from 2011 through 2018. 1,500 cases made.—H.S. Wine Spectator, Nov 2009 Harvey Steiman
An impressively powerful, concentrated wine with grapefruit and cedary oak aromas already quite complex and rich. Intense, tightly structured, long and powerful in the mouth. Still a baby. Drink now to six years. 95/100. Food: Roast chicken Sydney Morning Herald Good Living, 18th of August 2009 Houn Hooke
In 1978 Brian Croser selected the Piccadilly Valley in the centre of the Adelaide Hills because it provided the best terroirs in which to grow Chardonnay for the Petaluma Chardonnay, and Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for the sparkling wine Croser. The Tiers Vineyard was the first vineyard planted in the Adelaide Hills since the 19th century. It is in the centre of the Piccadilly Valley at 450 meters elevation and is on the same site where Brian and Ann Croser live and where the Petaluma Winery was built in 1978.
The Tiers Vineyard has 3 hectares of 28 year-old Chardonnay on closer spacing of 3,330 vines/hectare with vertical canopy, the first Australian mainland vineyard on this hand-labour intensive configuration. Another 1.5 hectares of the oldest vines on the Tiers were recently pulled out to make way for Dijon Chardonnay Clones 95 and 96 on devigorating rootstocks. These vines were planted on still closer spacing of 1.5m x 1.5m, or 4440 vines/hectare. The fruiting wire of the new vines has been reduced to 0.5m from the ground, from 0.8m in the older plantings, to take ripening advantage of ground warmth at night. The fruit from this newer planting of 1.5 hectares is blended with the older vine fruit in Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay.
The Piccadilly Valley is the coolest and highest rainfall viticultural sub-region in South Australia, with an average heat summation for the growing season of just 1172ºC days and an annual rainfall in excess of 1200 mm. The mean temperature of the hottest month (January) is 17.7ºC. The Piccadilly Valley is a homo-clime of Dijon in Burgundy. The soils in the Tiers Vineyard are free draining red-brown clay loams with a high content of clay (50%+) and rock fragments. The 1600 million year-old Calc-silicate parent-rock of the soil was brought to surface by an ancient fault line, and it exists only beneath the Tiers Vineyard and small portions of the neighboring properties. From 2005 Ann Croser, the owner, has agreed to divide the crop of the Tiers Vineyard between Petaluma and Tapanappa. Tapanappa selects its Tiers Chardonnay fruit from the thinner and rockier soils on the top of the slope and Petaluma harvests the belly of the slope.
