Josh Cooper Dash Farms Chardonnay 2025

The 2025 growing season delivered another outstanding vintage in our region. A warm, settled spring and summer were balanced by cool evenings and an extended ripening period, allowing the fruit to reach full physiological maturity without excessive sugar accumulation. Consistently dry conditions throughout the season meant disease pressure was virtually non-existent, resulting in pristine fruit arriving at the winery.

Planted in 1999, Dash Farms sits perched at over 450m ASL on the Southern granitic slopes of Mt. Alexander (Leanganook) looking back towards Mt Macedon and the Macedon Ranges. Like Ray-Monde, it sits just outside the Macedon Ranges GI. Ripening for Chardonnay occurs around a week earlier than my family’s vineyard Cobaw Ridge. These lean granite soils and high altitude confer both concentration and freshness at low sugar levels.

Once hand-harvested with careful sorting in the vineyard, the bunches were partially crushed by foot and very gently pressed. Overnight settling then occurs before transfer to a combination of new Stockinger 300L oak and Burgundian piece for fermentation and lees ageing for 12 months. This is then followed by four months in stainless steel on fine lees, before racking and bottling, unfined and unfiltered.