Liz Silkman is one of Australia’s most highly awarded winemakers. A legend in the Hunter Valley, she is the only person (not just woman) to have won Hunter Valley Winemaker of the Year not once but three times. Often referred to as the Queen of Hunter Chardonnay, she is undoubtedly one of the most talented and exciting winemakers working in Australia today.

Her own label with her husband Shaun has been going strong since 2013, and they have won too many awards to count in that time (but we can’t not mention being awarded Best Chardonnay in Australia in only their second year for the 2014 Silkman Reserve Chardonnay at the Halliday Chardonnay Challenge). Balancing this with their “real” jobs at First Creek wines, where Liz is the Chief Winemaker making wines for nearly 30 brands, along with three kids, it’s fair to say she’s a very impressive woman.

But on to this gorgeous wine: heaps of struck match, peach and pine-lime, spicy cedar oak. It’s big on flavour, pretty smoky and wild, with ample peach and just ripe pineapple deliciousness, a viscous feel but flinty and tangy in acidity too.

Queen Liz is setting the benchmark for the quality of Hunter Valley Chardonnay.