VASSE FELIX HEYTESBURY CHARDONNAY 2023

COLOUR Pretty pale-yellow garnet.

NOSE Wonderfully complex, showing classic aromas of fine stone flint, lamb fat, and champignon, alongside custard lemon biscuits. Subtle hints of wet limestone and ocean spray evoke the region’s maritime influence, while a touch of white leather and sweet new straw bring savoury notes.

PALATE Beautifully structured with long taut acid lines that provide strength and power. A fine, dry phenolic texture adds a layer of tension, complementing the wine’s depth. The palate evolves with lingering flavours of grapefruit, clotted cream and hints of ginger and lime leaf.

• 97 Points

  Andrew Caillard MW

  Pale colour. Intense grapefruit, bitter lemon aromas with roasted almond, vanilla notes. Pure, buoyant and refined with fresh grapefruit, honey dew melon, tonic water flavours, fine loose knit al dente textures, attractive creamy mid-palate and well-integrated marzipan vanilla notes. Finishes chalky, crisp and minerally. Delicious wine. Drink now – 2036.

• 99 Points

  Jane Faulkner & The Halliday Tasting Team 2026

  2026 White Wine of the Year, Chardonnay of the Year. Score awarded by the Halliday tasting panel at the annual Awards judging. JF writes: When it comes to the best of the best, provenance is paramount. And taste memory utmost, especially when tasting Heytesbury made under Virginia Willcock’s tutelage (in ’26 she clocks up 20 years as chief winemaker at Vasse Felix, during which time she has transformed chardonnay in the region and beyond). Her influence is here in this wine, and ’23 will be known as one of the finest. It's hard to explain because it’s still very tightly wound, yet it has depth and volume. Oscillating between power and refinement, intensity and pure drinking pleasure. Grapefruit, Meyer lemon, a crushed oyster shell note, flinty, moreish sulphides, texture, mouth-watering, pure acidity and so much more besides. Nothing else to say other than that this is outstanding.