There is no question where the real excitement lies in this year’s Kooyong release: the chardonnays are spectacular. Tasting through the range to make my selection, I was blown away by their quality. These are serious, beautifully composed wines, combining remarkable intensity and complexity with the freshness, precision and restraint that make Mornington Peninsula chardonnay so compelling. For lovers of top-class cool-climate chardonnay, I think these are wines not to miss.
The 2024 pinot noirs are rather different in character from last year’s wonderfully fragrant and ethereal 2023s, with a little less immediate aromatic fireworks and with greater emphasis instead on structure, concentration and savoury complexity. I therefore found myself being more selective, with Ferrous and Meres my clear picks of the single-block wines and the only ones beyond Massale that I chose to include in this offer.
Offer closes at midday Friday 2nd October
The 2025 growing season was warm and dry, with healthy yields and excellent fruit; a superb vintage for Mornington Peninsula. Despite the warmth, the wines have retained impressive freshness and finesse. Massale pinot noir is more structural and savoury than the exuberantly aromatic 2024 released last year but remains a seriously impressive wine for the price, offering a genuine taste of Kooyong’s serious pinot noir credentials at an accessible level. Clonale chardonnay may be its best release yet, combining texture and concentration with mouthwatering freshness and effortless drinkability. This is a highlight of this year’s offer.
The 2024 growing season was less straightforward. Heavy rain during flowering reduced pinot noir yields, while chardonnay fared considerably better. Conditions improved as summer progressed, with dry, mildly warm weather providing an excellent ripening period. The resulting chardonnays have wonderful flavour depth while retaining bright natural acidity and the differences between Kooyong’s sites are captured with vivid clarity. Faultline is the most linear and mineral, while Farrago is broader, more powerful and spicy. Both rank among the finest wines I have tasted from Kooyong and offer a compelling opportunity to see just how distinctive these individual sites can be.
Of the pinot noirs, both Ferrous and Meres vividly reflect their respective sites: Ferrous is savoury, mineral and structured, while Meres is more fragrant, floral and red-fruited. Both benefit from some air to open up and flesh out and should reward a little patience in bottle. No Haven was produced in 2024, but we hope to see it return next year.
Across the range, Tim Perrin continues to demonstrate just how sensitively he understands this remarkable vineyard. This year the chardonnays unquestionably steal the show, with the 2024 single-block wines particularly reaching another level. The single-block pinots require a little more patience, but the best have real personality and a vivid sense of place. Together, they reinforce Kooyong’s position among Australia’s most compelling producers of cool-climate chardonnay and pinot noir. For those already familiar with Kooyong, I think the chardonnays alone make this an especially exciting release; for those yet to discover the estate, Clonale and Massale offer an excellent introduction, while the single-block wines show just how serious and ageworthy Kooyong can be.
