Domenica Chardonnay 2025

Domenica Estate Chardonnay 2025 Beechworth, Victoria

Peter Graham spent over a decade as assistant winemaker at Giaconda — the producer most serious Chardonnay drinkers consider Australia's benchmark. When he started his own label on a remote granite ridge above Beechworth, the bar was always going to be set high. Vintage after vintage, he's cleared it.

Domenica sits 460 metres atop a granite ridge south-west of Beechworth, with just 4 hectares planted to Chardonnay, Nebbiolo, Shiraz and Gamay — all reflecting their high-altitude origin with a gripping mineral texture. Ten acres of hand-tended, low-cropped vines produce a mere 1,500 cases annually across the entire range — this is genuinely small, hands-on winemaking, not a marketing claim. 

The 2025 vintage is a particularly fine one. A cool, dry growing season with warm late-January and early-February weather allowed the fruit to ripen fully in excellent condition, handpicked over ten days by block and clone in mid-February. The wine was fermented in a mix of 600 litre demi-muids and 228 litre barriques, with new oak at around 20% — pitched to sit in the background — and only about half the wine taken through malolactic fermentation, preserving a driving natural acidity that builds texture without losing tension.

In the glass: pale straw in colour. A medium-bodied wine with fragrant white flowers, stone fruit, and ginger aromatics leading a mineral driven front palate. Aromas of honeysuckle, white nectarine, and grapefruit are chased by a fine line of acidity on the palate; carrying a stoney influence from the granite soils.The lightly toasted larger format oak brings depth and texture to the mid-palate, allowing the fruit to expand and carry through the full length of the wine. A wine of startling purity, and a true representation of site.

This is serious, age-worthy Australian Chardonnay priced well below what's actually in the bottle.