South West winery proves to have one of the best Australian Chardonnay drops

A South West winery has proved to have one of the best chardonnay drops in the country, winning gongs at both the Perth Royal Wine Awards and the Sydney Royal Wine Show.

Margaret River’s Driftwood Estate received two of the nine chardonnay gold medals on offer in Sydney with its 2023 Single Site chardonnay recognised as the top in its class with 96 out of 100 points.

The 2023 Driftwood Artifacts chardonnay was awarded 95 points.

The 2023 Single Site chardonnay was recognised as the best chardonnay, best white and the best overall wine at the Perth Agricultural Society awards.

Chief winemaker Kane Grove said the prizes were recognition of “blood sweat and tears” from him and his team, but conceded it was still a “big surprise”.

“We are very, very happy and very proud — proud of the team, of all the hard work that went into making that wine and getting some recognition for it,” he said.

“We’re just a hard-working family operation and we’ve got some really good soils at the vineyard, and produced some really good grapes, so to get that recognition was great.”

Grove said 2023 vintages across Margaret River whites and reds were “exceptional” with Driftwood’s winning drops beginning with “really good quality fruit”.

“When we came to the final blending, our emphasis was on choosing the best barrels that represent the fruit quality of the vineyard,” he said.

“So you can make a really good wine with lots of oak, but it was all about the best fruit expression.

“That’s what went into making that final blend, and a lot of thought behind that, a lot of tinkering about and trying to work out the best barrels that would go in.

“Once we worked all that out and put it together, we were very happy with it and obviously made the right choice, which was great.”

Grove started his career at Leeuwin Estate and said he always knew how to make good chardonnay, but was constantly honing his craft.

“Eloise Jarvis at Driftwood taught me the knack of how to respect the fruit here, and from there I’ve just sort of taken it on board and taken ownership of it and continue to try and better myself and make better wines here,” he said.

“I think we’re doing pretty well. We’re very hands on, we all go out there and pick the grapes. There’s a lot of hard work — blood, sweat and tears — that go into it.

“I think definitely, in terms of my career and where I’m at, this has been the best achievement to date.”

Grove said Driftwood would to continue to aim to make good wines while adopting more sustainable ways to produce and looking at different approaches to winemaking into the future.