2020 Pegasus Bay Virtuoso Chardonnay

97 POINTS

Sam Kim - Wine Orbit

Immensely complex and seductive, the bouquet shows mango, apricot, baked fig, and roasted hazelnut aromas with a lovely flinty nuance. The concentrated palate displays outstanding weight and depth, wonderfully supported by creamy mouthfeel and brilliantly pitched acidity. Multi-layered and engaging with a prolonged, gratifying finish. At its best: now to 2035.

96 POINTS

James Suckling

Powerful chardonnay with intense aromas of flinty reduction, smoke, lemon verbena, nutmeg, green papaya, mango and cardamom. It's full-bodied with rich, toasty and tropical fruit, with an underlying smokiness and savory saltiness. Muscular and compact, with punchy acidity. Intense. Sustainable.

96 POINTS

James Suckling

Powerful chardonnay with intense aromas of flinty reduction … It's full-bodied with rich, toasty and tropical fruit, with an underlying smokiness and savoury saltiness. Muscular and compact, with punchy acidity

96 POINTS

Dave Brookes - Halliday Wine Companion

There's a richness, sense of drive and latent power and shades of Burgundian complexity in the chardonnay wines of Pegasus Bay, and their Virtuoso is consistently a banger. Lemony straw in the glass with concentrated aromas and flavours of nectarine, grapefruit, baked apples and stone fruits cut with hints of buttered freshly baked brioche, grilled nuts, comté, pressed flowers, struck match, vanilla pod, spiced poached quince and oak spice. Long of flavour, concentrated and savoury with a stony mineral line and a finish that sails on for quite some time. Great stuff.

96 POINTS

Cameron Douglas MS

A fantastic bouquet with power in and intensity, with a core of roasted stone fruits and oak, baked apple and layers of wood spice and wood smoke. As the wine opens out in the glass these ideas intensity and develop. Full bodied, dry, and very intense, flavours mirror the bouquet with stone fruits and lemon, some quince and wood spices all vying for attention on the palate. Medium+ acidity, fine wood tannins frame the wine beautifully. Balanced and well made, a wine that is ready enjoy from today

93 POINTS

Rebecca Gibb MW - Vinous

The 2020 Chardonnay Virtuoso is Pegasus Bay's top-of-the-shop white cuvée, and it is far from shy in its infancy. Subtle it ain't, it bops you on the nose with lime, toast, smoke and grilled nuts, but there's depth, concentration and a firm seriousness that will reward patience. If you can't wait that long, this estate Chardonnay represents excellent value for the quality.

93 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2020 Virtuoso Chardonnay leads with salty cheese rind and intense acidity in the mouth; this is potently powerful, with poached orchard fruit, toasted pineapple, Keen's curry powder, toasted cheese and pastry, mustard seeds and loads of nuts. It is a complex beast, and it's not easy to pin down in its flavor profile. This is a tremendously powerful wine here—positively saturated in flavor. Everything is dialed up to the maximum. This has all the ordered chaos of a layered fugue: the climax of Mozart's Symphony 41, Jupiter, comes to mind with this wine. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.