Topdrops

The Rathbone family's Yering Station makes four chardonnays: Little Yering ($14.40-$18), Village ($19.20-$24), Yering Station ($32-$40) and Reserve ($96-$120). There's a correlation between price and quality, but it's not a linear relationship, and the lower priced wines offer many of the features found in the top ones. The just-released Village Chardonnay, for example, offers mouth-wateringly ripe varietal flavours, deeply meshed in the pleasing textures and flavour subtleties derived from fermentation and maturation in oak barrels, new and old. Wine club members can buy it for $19.20. But even at full retail price of $24 you get a real drinking thrill for your money.