A Rodda Willow Lake Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2024

This is not what I expected. The 24 Willow Lake Chard is a serene, beautifully pitched and harmonious bottle of Chardonnay.
From a vineyard, and a producer, where I expect more grit and sizzle. This comes across as effortlessly great. Concentrated. Powerful. Still with that precise line, all the vim and vigour of WL vineyard, but fleshed out, more width to the impressive, and impressively long, palate.
This is super. It's a stylistic shift for the great man, but one everyone is going to go nuts for. All the usual sophistication but more complete. Thoroughly engrossing bottle of wine. A buttoned up, three-piece suit and your best boots kind of release. Sauve. Impeccably well presented, it has a real sense of confidence and cohesion.
Adrian Rodda seems to have tapped a new reserve of flavour in his recent releases. I'm loving it. Not sure why, and I am long overdue a visit to that particular madhouse. Maybe I need to jump in the car, take the drive and demand some answers.
For now though, I am straight up buying these for myself. Great. Great wine! Is it a turning point for Rodda? A new leap forward for a brand that has already demonstrated its excellence time and time again? Who knows. What we can be sure of is that Rodda will never take a backwards step, he is too inquisitive and thoughtful, always wanting to improve, in everything he does except for his jokes, terrible dad jokes. ROSCOE