Vasse Felix Margaret River Filius Chardonnay

Chardonnay is the grape named on this bottle, and in our September 2026 checks it ranged from $32.99 to $36.99. Chardonnay makes both still and sparkling wine, and official category guides offer citrus and apple as cooler-climate examples, with stone fruit or tropical fruit turning up in riper ones. We do not have a shopper rating for this wine.

Vasse Felix says it was established in 1967 by Dr Thomas Cullity as the founding wine estate of Australia's Margaret River region, and that the Holmes a Court family has owned it since 1987. Those guides add that oak can shape whether a Chardonnay stays lighter or gains more weight, and that time on the spent yeast may add toast, spice and a rounder feel, though no winemaking details are on record for this bottle.

The producer's technical sheet for the current release gives the winemaking specifics: fruit is selectively harvested, pressed whole-berry, fermented with wild yeast, and matured seven months in French oak barriques, only 3 percent of them new, at 12.5 percent alcohol. The producer's own tasting notes describe a nose of rockmelon, lemon-herb butter and Granny Smith apple, with a “restrained creamy core” on the palate finishing “warm, dry, gently powdery.” Two independent critics have scored the current vintage: Melissa Moore of The Real Review and Jane Faulkner of the Halliday Wine Companion each gave it 93 points.

Our call: worth a look if you want a lighter, cooler-climate style of Chardonnay backed by two 93-point critic scores and a producer that publishes its winemaking choices in full, down to the seven months in French oak and the 3 percent of it new. Pass if a shopper's own rating matters to your decision: none has reached our record yet, so critics and the producer's account are all this bottle currently offers.

The Grocery Store Wine Desk · written Sep 16, 2026 from our research file for this wine. Numbers reflect our latest checks.