Adelaide Hills Chardonnay '25

Gentle Folk is one of the most quietly celebrated natural wine producers in Australia — a small project run by Gareth Belton in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia, a cool-climate region whose elevation, maritime influence, and diverse soils produce wines of genuine finesse and restraint. Gareth farms organically and biodynamically, works with minimal intervention in the cellar, and has built a devoted following for wines that feel more Burgundian than Australian in their precision, texture, and sense of place.

Chardonnay is one of the great tests of a winemaker's instinct, and Gareth passes it with ease. This is not an oaky, buttery, fruit-forward Australian Chardonnay — it is something far more considered and interesting: a wine of real tension and detail, where the Adelaide Hills' natural acidity and cool-climate freshness are preserved and amplified rather than overwhelmed. Expect white peach, citrus, a little nectarine, and the savoury, mineral quality that comes from thoughtful farming and minimal intervention in the cellar. The texture is silky and precise, the finish long and clean. Drink it with roast chicken, grilled fish, aged Gruyère, or anything that calls for a white wine with genuine depth and character.