There are literally dozens of grape varieties grown in the Hunter Valley, but virtually all the region's flagship wines are made from shiraz, or semillon.
Chardonnay is pretty much an afterthought for many producers, so Meerea Park sprung a surprise when it released a 2024 Stratos Chardonnay with a $120 price tag.
It is a superbly poised and precise wine made in tiny quantities; from just two barrels, in fact.
Our Hunter Valley correspondent Rick Allen wrote about the wine for the Newcastle Herald.
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When you bring out a new flagship wine and immediately make it the most expensive of its variety in the region, you leave yourself nowhere to hide.
And for brothers Garth and Rhys Eather of Meerea Park Wines in the Hunter, so be it.
Their Meerea Park Stratos 2024 Chardonnay has just been released at a hefty $120 a bottle, and they’re more than happy to let the wine do the talking.
Still, there’s no doubt the price point is bold considering there’s a lot of exceptionally good chardonnay made in the Hunter, some with great history and pedigree.
“I don’t look at it on a local level, but national - and in that regard I believe the price is very reasonable for the quality of wine you’re getting,” managing director Garth Eather said.
“I love the Hunter Valley and I’m sick of people getting the perception that our chardonnays aren’t as good as those from other regions like Margaret River or the Yarra because we don’t charge as much.
‘Also, we’re a small producer, don’t have our own vineyard, nor the same economy of scale as larger operations.
“So buying in the best fruit and using the very finest Sirugue oak barrels is expensive.”
The Stratos production equates to about 50 dozen bottles, and the wine will only be produced when vintage quality warrants it.
The idea of a flagship white to sit alongside their flagship BLACK shiraz had been on the agenda for a while.
“I didn’t want to do it with semillon because there’s not much you can do with semillon," Eather said. “But chardonnay is different. There’s a lot of choices you can make and I think it’s a product of how good the winemaker is going. And when they get it right, it’s beautiful.
“I had the Stratos named trademarked and had been waiting for the right time and right wine to use it.”
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The fruit comes from the top-notch Casuarina vineyard.
Eather's verdict: “Terrific balance, no arms and legs sticking out, lovely richness of fruit, round and creamy. It has varietal character, length and depth. That’s what great wine is all about.”
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