2024 Howard Park Allingham Chardonnay

This was a hot and very early vintage, but the vineyard location in the cooler Karridale area has helped control the speed of ripening, and the result is a mighty impressive chardonnay. It’s a concentrated and immensely powerful wine with great depth on the palate after an opening engagement, showing aromas of light cashew and brioche. There is something quite Burgundian here with its dry savoury chalkiness providing line and length throughout the palate. An excellent wine that is only in its very early stages and needs at least another year to hit its straps.

A warmer vintage yet this comes across as cool, cooling and refined; still plenty of flavour though. Lemon and white peach, nougat studded with grilled nuts. Creamy, with a touch of honeycomb. The oak imparts flavour, for sure, but it is neatly integrated. The acidity is refreshing and drives this to a long finish, with just the right amount of phenolics to add more shape and depth. Very classy drink here, folks.

The previous vintage of Allingham Chardonnay, 2023, just won a gold medal at the 2025 Decanter World Wine Awards, which equalled 96 points. I have not tasted the 2023 (why? I’m not sure), but this new 2024 release presents very well already. Nic Bowen has been the winemaker in charge at Howard Park since 2021, after 12 years at House of Arras, and I like his direction. This is a solid, classy Chardonnay. Elegance, for sure. Energy, yes. Oak, of course, but it’s smooth, it’s restrained, it lets the fruit shine. Even though it’s not impossible to enjoy this immediately, the concentration and structure look promising for this wine’s future. But for now, there’s almond meal and custard powder, vanilla bean ice cream that melts and honeyed nuts that crunch, kaffir lime leaf and grapefruit blossom, lemon tart with torched meringue, plenty of citrus and a firm nectarine. Texture is fine and detailed, powdery turns juicy load of flavour with a tight finish. There’s a blanc de blancs delicacy about it, almost as if it was touched by someone who made a lot of smart sparkling wine in life.

Earns a place at Margaret River’s Chardonnay top table such is the complexity and utterly undeniable beauty it brings to the glass. Offers a sunny, sea spray, beachy scent – textbook Margs gin gin clone – entwined with ripe stone fruits, just-cut white peach, citrus, biscuit spice, nougat and grilled cashew. The palate is brightly lit in summery fruits and then builds in depth and concentration and keeps building, introducing nutty, nougat notes with vanillin oak – so smart -in play. Runs smoothly, runs long, well-structured with acidity kicking in through the finish, clean and efficient. Lots to look forward to as it progresses over the years.

Bright in the glass and with fabulously lifted aromas of stone-fruit, nougat, melon skin, grapefruit pith, white flowers, oyster brine and wet stone. Mouth-filling, textured, layered and long. There’s a drive of citrus, nectarine and fuzzy peach, all working very nicely with punchy acidity, nutty oak and a complexing touch of grippy phenolics. Sophisticated gear; a very classy chardonnay.

This shows its origins clearly from the cooler Karidale sub-region in Margaret River’s south. There’s a restrained, poised character here – quieter and more subtle than the louder Chardonnays further north. Sweet lime, gunflint, white grapefruit, and fine cedar bring immediate impact and class, underpinned by a subtle nougat substratum and a whisper of honey. With aeration, the fruit unfurls to reveal nectarine and white peach, followed by vanilla bean and lees-derived dough notes. Even aromatically, there’s abundant flavour wrapped in an elegant thread. The palate is equally restrained, with gorgeous texture. Dehydrated lime, grapefruit, nectarine, grilled nuts, and lemon peel are funneled through a firm line of saline acidity and chalk-laced phenolics, while cedar lingers in the mouth perfume. The length is lovely, though quietly carried. A classy release.

This has the unmistakable character of the Gingin clone with aromas of preserved lemons, grapefruit, flint, salted nuts and margarita. The palate is tightly wound yet with generous fruit concentration and a long, mineral-driven finish. Polished and refined, this is poised for early drinking now and for years to come.

The 2024 Allingham Chardonnay is nutty and salty and fine and actually quite creamy on the middle palate. 2024 was a notoriously hot and dry season, yet the best producers saw it coming and managed it diligently from the outset, which is what appears to have happened here. It has balance and freshness along with pert acidity and tightly wound phenolic tension that comes together to create a wine of deliciousness and repose. I’m still longing for the utterly sensational 2023 release, however I remain impressed and glad about this 2024. 13% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.

Medium pale colour. Lifted grapefruit, apricot, pastry aromas with toasted almond/ hint marzipan notes. Pure grapefruit, ripe apricot, nectarine flavours, beautiful al dente/ lacy textures and underlying toasty, roasted nut notes. Builds up chalky from and minerally with superb pure fruit notes. Exceptional. Drink now – 2034.

Smoky nose, lovely nutty character with pineapple cubes, white floral notes, subtle smokiness on the palate and a long, yogurty finish.

The fruit for the team’s flagship Chardonnay comes from their best blocks on the south-facing slopes of the Allingham vineyard in the Karridale sub-region of Margaret River, usually a little cooler than much of the district. Maturation is in French oak. Howard Park has always been a leading winery in Margaret River, but some of what we are seeing of late suggests that they are now competing favourably with the absolute best in the region. Deep lemon, this is refined and focused. There are notes of lemon curd, nectarine, lemongrass, spices, jasmine and white peaches. The wine has deceptive length, serious persistence and very good underlying intensity. Flavour in spades, but always elegant, the wine is finely balanced and beautifully crafted. It offers a seductive texture and the oak integration is exemplary. A ten-year proposition and an absolutely cracking Margaret River Chardonnay.

From vines celebrating their 20th anniversary. Nic Bowen cleverly reduced malolactic fermentation and duration of oak maturation in response to this naturally richer year. The result presents the white peach and fig flesh, body and presence of the Gin Gin clone in Margaret River with the grapefruit and lemon drive of malic tension, neatly balanced with the creamy texture of wild fermentation in barriques, demi-muids and puncheons.