External search
Google (images)
Wine Advocate
Wine Spectator
Burghound
Wine-Searcher
Vintages
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
Show more
From this producer
Show all wines
All tasting notes
|
| Drinking Windows and Values |
| Drinking window: Drink between 2023 and 2028 (based on 46 user opinions) |
| Community Tasting History |
| Community Tasting Notes (average 90.5 pts. and median of 90 pts. in 5 notes) - hiding notes with no text | | | Tasted by rspenz on 1/13/2024 & rated 89 points: Remains fruit driven, with subtle oak. Little in the way of reductive aromas. (161 views) | | | Tasted by multimax on 1/13/2024: A bit metallic but otherwise well-balanced. Good structure with just the right amount of acidity that carries the rather subtle fruit (pear, peach) and the floral (jasmine, lime-leaves) aromas to medium and a touch buttery finish. Certainly not stunning, but enjoyable nonetheless. Needed a bit of air. (204 views) | | | Tasted by Geoff7777 on 10/13/2021: I am usually a big fan of this wine, and I especially like it’s availability on restaurant wine lists, but this does not sing for me. It has the usual good-winemaking-cool-Macedon signature but lacks the energy and tension of previous vintages. Day 2 and some air has helped but not for me. There are too many terrific Chardonnay’s available at this price point to consider this an option. Move on. (845 views) | | | Tasted by ploher on 12/18/2020: By the glass in a restaurant.
Lemon, ginger, salt, caramalised salted almonds; crisp, fresh, pure and transparent; beautiful texture, young, but already very harmonious. This opened up very well in the glass and got more expressive by the minute. Fantastic Chardonnay with a bright future. 17+/20 (806 views) | | | Tasted by Derek Darth Taster on 11/3/2020 & rated 92 points: Bindi Tasting. Drank in Gabriel Standart.
Appearance is clear, pale intensity, lemon colour. Legs.
Nose is clean, medium+ intensity, with aromas of expressive ripe peach, fragrant lemon oil, light toast, touch of salted nut. Developing.
On the palate, dry, medium+ acidity, medium alcohol, medium body. Medium+ flavour intensity, with flacvours of nicely ripe peach, sweet citrus lemon and lemon oil, light toast, salty stony minerality. Sweet + salty long finish.
Very good quality. Upfront and expressive. All works out despite the acidity sensation not being as high as I usually like my Chards to be. Gives me the impression of longevity nonetheless. (1024 views) |
| By James Halliday
Halliday Wine Companion (3/1/2021)
(Bindi Wines Kostas Rind Chardonnay) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Halliday
Halliday Wine Companion (2/28/2021)
(Bindi Wines Kostas Rind Chardonnay Macedon Ranges) Subscribe to see review text. | By James Suckling
JamesSuckling.com (7/10/2020)
(Bindi Chardonnay Macedon Ranges Kostas Rind, White, Australia) Subscribe to see review text. | By Mike Bennie
The WINEFRONT (6/4/2020)
(Bindi Kostas Rind Chardonnay) Subscribe to see review text. | By Josh Raynolds
Vinous, South Australia, Victoria and a Bit Beyond (Sep 2022)
(Bindi Wines Chardonnay Kostas Rind White) Subscribe to see review text. |
NOTE: Scores and reviews are the property of Halliday Wine Companion and JamesSuckling.com and The WINEFRONT and Vinous. (manage subscription channels) |
| Bindi Producer website
‘Bindi’, 50 kilometers north-west of Melbourne in the Macedon Ranges, is the family property of the Dhillon family. Originally purchased in the 1950s as part of the larger grazing farm ‘Bundaleer’, ‘Bindi’ is a 170 hectare farm of which 6 hectares are planted to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Fifteen hectares are dedicated to managed plantation eucalypts for high grade furniture timber whilst the remainder of the land is maintained as remnant bush land and important indigenous grasslands.
The Bindi vineyard is the fundamental focus of our endeavors. Our vineyard and winemaking philosophy is to seek balance and purity in the expression of our various individual vineyard sites and this philosophy is applied to farming and conservation at ‘Bindi’; the preservation of the natural harmony.
Featured on the Bindi label is Kostas Rind (1909 - 1983). In the words of Bill Dhillon: "Kostas Rind was a Lithuanian sage who epitomised wisdom and humility. From a migrant hostel in Albury, this mathematician and former professor was recruited to Ballarat Boys Grammar School. Kostas taught me much. He introduced me to wine. I was privileged to know Kostas and am very grateful for his influence. We continue to dedicate Bindi wines to Kostas."
Vineyard
Plantings
Chardonnay in 1988
Quartz Chardonnay in 1988
Original Vineyard Pinot Noir in 1988
Block Five Pinot Noir in 1992
Block K Pinot Noir in 2001
Chardonnay two hectares
Pinot Noir four hectares
Vineyard elevation 500 meters above sea level. Soils predominantly shattered quartz over siltstone, sandstone and clay (Ordovician period sub soils-480 million years old) with some eroded volcanic top soil over clay (Approximately four millions years old). Generally unfertile.
Production ranges from 1,800-3,000 dozen bottles per vintage.
Yields typically 1.5 to 2 tonnes per acre (3.5 to 5.0 tonnes per hectare).
Typical hand management regimes of fastidious small vineyard philosophies are maintained encompassing hand pruning, frequent passes (at least ten passes each vine) though the growing season managing the vertical shoot positioned canopy and hand harvesting.
Increasingly low impact, organic outcomes are being trialled and implemented. This involves undervine mowing and aerating the soil (opening up the soil for air, moisture and soil applications).
Winemaking
Vigneron: Michael Dhillon
Winemaking: Michael Dhillon with Stuart Anderson consulting
Our fermentations occour without addition of yeast, yeast nutrient or enzyme. Unsettled Chardonnay juice goes straight to barrel, reds are gently worked, delicate pressing, long lees ageing in French barrels and minimal racking. No fining and restricted filtration regimes are followed.
Bindi vineyards
The Bindi vineyards are at an elevation of 500 meters above sea level, high for Australia. The soils are predominantly shattered quartz over siltstone, sandstone, and clay with some eroded volcanic topsoil over clay, which are generally infertile. Despite the size of the property, only a small amount is planted to vines, around seven hectares.
In 1988, Bindi planted the Kostas Rind Chardonnay Vineyard and the Quartz Chardonnay Vineyard. These two constitute two hectares in total, while the remaining five are devoted to Pinot Noir (Dhillon also sources some Shiraz from Heathcote for his Pyrette Syrah). The Original Vineyard, also planted in 1988, is devoted to Pinot Noir. In 1992, the famous Block 5 Pinot Noir vineyard was planted and then in 2001 Block K Pinot Noir.
Then we have the two latest exciting additions. The Darshan Vineyard in 2014 (a single acre) and Block 8 (just 1.9 acres) in 2016. Both of these are high-density vineyards with 11,300 vines per hectare in 1.1 x 0.8 m spacing. Dhillon has planted a small percentage of both vineyards with an even higher density: 22,600 vines per hectare.
Dhillon describes the soil in the Darshan Vineyard as “less dramatic” than that found in Block 8. It is a more even quartz, while Block 8 has a strong quartz influence at the top and more volcanic loam in the lower parts.
Dhillon has two more vineyards to plant and is hoping to do so within the next 18 to 24 months. There will be another acre of Pinot Noir, a continuation around the slope of Block 8. It will likely be medium density, around 5,000 to 6,000 vines/hectare. Those grapes are likely to form part of the Dixon Pinot. The second is 1.5 acres devoted to Chardonnay. It is on the quartz rise – in fact, the vineyard is so heavily dominated by quartz that Dhillon refers to it as Bindi’s “ultra-quartz” vineyard. This will sit separately. The vine density will range from around 5,000 to an astonishing 44,000 vines per hectare.
This focus on the single vineyards and their individual terroir is very much in the Burgundian tradition.
As for clones, Dhillon uses MV6, 115, Abel, 667, and in cool years 777. Some winemakers throw clones around like confetti. For Dhillon, “Lots of clones are a good thing if they are good clones.” For him, there are around five to seven clones that work, but others will do good things in certain conditions, though he believes that the clones lose their impact with age.
Bindi Chardonnay Kostas RindAn intense, mineral wine fully ripe but lean, taught and intense with savoury, creamy elements. Fragrant notes of orange blossom, nectarine stone, spice and subtle nuttiness are usual with a vibrant, tight, long palate highlighted by clean acidity, wonderful texture and fine length.
The Kostas Rind Chardonnay is grown in a 1.5 hectare plot. The wine is fermented in French barrels of which typically 20% are new. Fermentation occurs without the addition of cultured yeast and the wine remains in barrel on yeast lees over winter with only a small amount of malo-lactic conversion taking place. It is racked around eight months after vintage, and returned to barrel for a further three months before bottling.
Production varies from 300-600 dozen per vintage.Chardonnay The Chardonnay GrapeAustralia Wine Australia (Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation) | Australian Wines (Wikipedia)Victoria Wines of Victoria (Victorian Wine Industry Association) |
|
