Did you know that the Hunter Valley was one of the first places in Australia to release a wine labelled as 'Chardonnay'? Wines like this don't feel like a flashback, though - we're in cool Chardonnay land here, with a perfectly balanced blend of white peach and a little vanilla. It's crisp but mouthfilling, fresh and classy, yet still with this easy nectarine fruit flourish that works so nicely.

From their home vineyard at Broke Fordwich in the Lower Hunter Valley, Andrew & Lisa Margan first set out in 1996 to showcase the sort of fruit intensity that the famously fertile, weathered red volcanic clay soils of their plot could deliver. From the start, those Margan Wines releases were such generous things! But what's even more interesting is what happened next: an onsite restaurant (with a famous kitchen garden) that has become one of the absolute best in the Hunter, complemented by an orchard, an olive grove, and a working farm that sells lambs, free-range chickens, and honey. We're not even touching on the cellar door, which has won all the awards around! More recently, Ollie Margan has increasingly taken over the business, bringing a sharp focus on modern styles and a different approach. Grapes are picked earlier, wines are made with minimal intervention, and some curious concrete fermenters are used to capture optimum freshness, with the whole Margan range now looking better than ever.