Craiglee is one of Australia's historic vineyards, first planted at Sunbury, north-west of Melbourne, in 1864 by James Johnston, whose nineteenth-century Craiglee reds earned international acclaim. The modern estate was re-established in 1976 by Pat Carmody, who replanted the site and has made the wines since. (The seed bullet-point attributing the founding to 'Dr Dan Buckle' is incorrect and has been disregarded.) Sunbury is a cool, elevated district on free-draining clay loams over decomposed rock, giving restrained, structured wines. The 2023 Chardonnay is drawn from the estate vineyard; it shows in a youthful, tightly wound state suggesting a cooler, slow-ripening season.

The Chardonnay was whole-bunch pressed and fermented and matured in French oak in Craiglee's restrained style, with a touch of nutty lees and seamlessly integrated oak rather than overt new-wood flavour, and lively natural acidity retained through to bottling. Reviewers describe Meyer lemon, grapefruit pith and ginger spice in a pared-back, savoury and textural frame that is built to gain complexity with bottle age. Exact oak proportion and any malolactic fermentation for the 2023 are not confirmed here.