News and Reviews

2024 Willem Kurt Chardonnay, Beechworth, VIC, RRP $50, 93 points

"Nougat, smoky bacon fat and clotted cream sit around a lovely cut of citrus and stone-fruit drive - white peach, Meyer lemon, white-nectarine flesh and cooked apple. There’s an engaging dichotomy of freshness and power, which carries nicely to the palate: nougat, fine cedar, subtle smoke and ginger are quickly chased down by notes mirroring the nose in white peach, nectarine and baked apple, with that clotted-cream note adding leesy appeal. The finish features a tight lemony tang and a good dose of citrus-preserve bitterness, with acidity surging to draw out the length. There’s an excellent mix of lees and oak-derived savouriness here, counterbalanced by assertive, precise fruit drive. Controlled power. A strong release."

Tom Kline, Wine Pilot, November 2025

2025 Willem Kurt Vermentino, Beechworth, VIC, RRP $35, 92 points

"This is very lifted in its perfume, with sweet jasmine florals hovering above green mango skin, melon, preserved lemon and white peach. Salty tones add dimension beyond the fruit. Clever winemaking here, keeping varietal truth firmly at the fore. The palate is bright and fresh, with a sense of harmony belying its youth - green pineapple, peach, glimmers of kumquat and subtle spice lead to a saline-edged finish of good length, with some green-almond bitterness adding a gastronomic edge. A surge of gentle acidity through the back palate provides a clean wash-down. Well made, varietally true, bright and fresh."

Tom Kline, Wine Pilot, November 2025

"Hand picked, wild yeast fermentation, whole-bunch pressed, maturation in oak (25% new), 50% mlf. Willem Kurt Wines is one of Beechworth's quiet stars on the rise, and deserves better recognition for its pristine beauty of a chardonnay. Green nectarine, lemon-lime citrus, white peach, almond and flint aromas are heady, summer breezy and inviting. Beautifully composed, smoothly textured, driving long and bright on tangy acidity. Offers a lovely, seamless journey into Beechworth chardonnay. Delightful."

95 pointsJeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion

"Vermentino loves its high, cool-climate home in Beechworth, and each vintage sees more and more development. The '25 is looking particularly smart and serious with its scents and flavours of apple blossom, acacia, chervil, citrus and pear skin. Delivers a vibrant, saline, juicy and gently phenolic texture. Love the grip on the middle palate, with light, savoury almond skin notes to close. On point and looking good!"

93 pointsJeni Port Halliday Wine Companion

Published 05 November 2025

"White peach, lime, spicy biscuits, a little smoky bacon, fennel and chamomile perfume. It’s a lively wine offering a good amount of flavour, a flinty smoky element, lime rind and oatmeal, a juicy freshness to acidity, with a bright and gently grainy finish of excellent length. Very nice."

94 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

"The world is crazy for Beechworth chardonnay and why the heck wouldn’t it be.

There’s an inherent complexity to this chardonnay. It pushes hay into peach, smoked bacon into grapefruit, and oatmeal into citrus, and while it has semblances of slippery smoothness – or richness, even – it feels energetic throughout, and ultimately lengthy. The way flavour sweeps through the finish is particularly enjoyable, and of particular note. This is another winner under the Willem Kurt label."

94 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front. February 2025

"This release is fabulous. It’s everything you hope and want for in a Beechworth Syrah. It’s spicy, meaty, floral and complex, and backed by fresh-but-flavoursome dark berried fruit flavour. There’s firm-ish tannin, excellent length, twiggy spice notes and a general air of both confidence and seduction. Oak is tucked neatly within; everything is played beautifully."

94 pointsCampbell Mattinson, The Wine Front. February 2025

"Nutty, perfumed, redcurrant, tangerine and blood orange. It’s juicy and savoury, has a softness to it, but also a bit of Campari bitterness, and strawberry, a firm chalky grip to texture, with a juicy and saline finish of excellent length. A sophisticated style, and very good to drink,"

93 pointsGary Walsh, The Wine Front, February 2025

"Another stylish and complex chardonnay for this label. Embraces a chalky, savoury, citrus flintiness that is so convincingly good, convincingly Beechworth in personality. Nectarine, white peach, preserved lemon, gun flint backed by baked bread, toasted almond and spice. Acidity is a feature here, bringing a tensile quality. Mouth-watering grapefruit pithy finish."

95 points, Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion, November 2024

"The Willem Kurt vineyard, just south of the town of Beechworth, is on Buckland Gap Road, the mere mention of which road, as a former cyclist, raises my anxiety levels.

This is a very good release. At $45 it’s a lay down misere. It’s a wine of power, concentration, depth and length; it’s a wine of freshness and style. It tastes of grapefruit, stone fruits, stones, cedarwood and flint, though everything in reality is tucked in and composed. At every turn it feels textural, fruit-filled and confident. The Willem Kurt wines are always good, and this is one of the best of them."

94 pointsCampbell Mattinson, The Wine Front. June 2024

"Well hello.This is a beautiful Beechworth shiraz. Composed, fresh, flavoursome and complex. It tastes of black cherries, almost into plum, with deli meat, black pepper, floral elements, woodsmoke and an array of both sweet spices and garden herb characters. There’s a clear, welcoming sweetness to the fruit, which really draws you in, but then there’s so much savoury, spicy, bunchy character inlaid. This is a beauty."

94 pointsCampbell Matinson, The Wine Front. June 2024

"Beechworth punches above its weight (i.e. size) when it comes to chardonnay. Consistently so, which is why we see another strong, sun filled chardonnay release from Willem Kurt. Bright, light, yellow hues glisten. Lifted scents of nectarine, white peach, citrus and spring flowers flow. Mineral tang is a most attractive feature, lipsmackingly so, backed with crunchy, bright acidity. So good."

95 points, Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion

The essence of Beechworth chardonnay, beautifully captured. The granitic soils produce an effortless natural balance with a stone-like mineral tang. It's here in spades, joining nectarine, lime, ruby grapefruit, almond macaroon and nougat laced in a subtle oak spice. Fabulous concentration of fruit on display, smooth and textural, too. Runs long and delicious.

95 points

Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion

Published 06 July 2023

Sourced from their home vineyard, planted in 2017, with some additional grapes from another Beechworth vineyard.

Bright, zesty, grapefruit and passionfruit crème brûlée, cedar and spice, with a little struck match. It’s tight and flinty, gently buttery and nutty, ginger, plenty of grapefruity acidity, and a firm finish of excellent length. It’s maybe a little lacking in depth of flavour and concentration, but gee it has some energy to it.

93 points

Gary Walsh, The Wine Front

6th June 2023

This isn’t the first Vermentino release from Willem Kurt but I think that it’s the first from its Beechworth vineyard. Previous releases have been Alpine Valleys.

It’s quite a beauty. Distinctive too. Brine and grapefruit flavours with oysters, fennel and melon. It has flavour and (lots of) texture but it feels direct. It’s lengthy too. This would really sing with food. There’s a great deal to like about this wine.

93 points

Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

2nd July 2023

All-around delicious drinking in shades of citrus – lime zest, grapefruit and Meyer lemon – with a pinch of white flowers and apple blossom, a splash of baked apple and pear. It's all delivered smoothly across the palate accompanied by bright acidity.

91 points

Jeni Port, Halliday Wine Companion

Published 24 April 2023

"Youthful and bright red in the glass. Pretty aromas of bramble, blue fruits, cola, spice and vanilla. Full, fleshy and blueberry fruit driven on the palate. Textured, layered, long and mouth-filling. A fresh, bright and lively shiraz"

90 points

Aaron Brasher, The Real Review

25th June 2023

The Willem Kurt range of wines is in fantastic shape.

This weighs in at 12.8% alcohol but just look at the power of it. And the flavour. Peach, cedar, sweet almonds, milky-vanilla-like notes and a quartz-like aspect. This really works up a head of steam once it’s had time to breathe. It’s (pale) straw-coloured and it shows its oak but it’s completely integrated and has semblances of chalky dryness through the finish. Excellent.

94 points

Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

5th March 2022

This is tight and controlled and yet it has presence. Daniel Balzer, the man behind the Willem Kurt wines, turns out fine vermentino. I guess this wine is citrussy but there’s slate, chalk and a suggestion of fennel too, almost into blackcurrant bud territory but the control here means that it’s a lot more savoury than that; indeed it’s almost earthen. I know that I’ve already mentioned presence but it’s worth underlining that. This wine excellent now but there’s a good chance that it will be better again with some extra time in bottle

94 points

Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

4th March 2022

This looks relatively light in the glass and is lifted and floral on the nose, not to mention spice-laden, but the palate has presence and power beyond expectations. Cherried fruit with explosions of woodsmoke and exotic spice are the hallmarks of this wine, though there’s a lot going on besides. Fine-but-firm tannin, more florals, musk and chocolate. It reminds me of the old Battely Syrah wines but with greater lightness of touch. This is very good.

93 points

Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

5th March 2022

It has the depth and ripe flavour that this region achieves with chardonnay. It's powerful, yet the acidity keeps a firm hold on ensuring it's not too much. Citrus and stone fruit together, spice and cedary sweet oak in balance, creamy lees/curd and lemon tang on the finish, the combo makes this spot on.

95 points

Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion

Published 18 June 2021

“Light straw-yellow colour; appealing bouquet of subtle toasty oak and lemon and grapefruit characters. There is good lemony intensity in the mid-palate which carries long, the fruit doing most of the talking. A refined style of considerable charm, and it has the potential to go further. Lovely drinking.”

95/100 Huon Hooke, The Real Review, April 2020

“It’s creamy cashew and peachy, ginger spice (feels posh too), a silky feel in with juicy pink grapefruit acidity and flavour, flows along beautifully, but it’s the burst of fresh acidity and intensity on the long finish that makes it so very appealing. Flavour yes, but delivered with style and control. Excellent.”

94 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, March 2020

“A graceful and effortless Shiraz. Mixed berries, a little cracked pepper and spice, gentle vanilla and floral perfume. It’s medium-bodied, fine and pleasingly ‘mineral’ in feel and taste, supple long grained tannin, and spicy, long and a little meaty to close. Beautifully made”

94 points Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, March 2020

“Very good Vermentino. Fine chalky feel, lemon pith and spice, freshness and energy, some juicy green pear flavour, savoury almost umami flavour on the finish, along with a little quinine-like bitterness. Lovely.”

93 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, March 2020

“Beechworth shiraz. Fermented wild, 10% whole bunches, all-French oak, no fining or filtration. It’s a pretty, medium-weight shiraz but it doesn’t lack flavour; or character for that matter. Trademark (in Beechworth terms) cherry-plum fruit flavour with inklings of anise. Choc-orange notes, not into Jaffa territory but suggestive of it. Herb notes, sweet and floral. Maybe some mint. It just works. Tannin is massaged through the back half. It’s a lovely shiraz.” 

93+points , Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front, December 2018

“There’s no doubt that Beechworth is ‘flavour country’ when it comes to Chardonnay.

Golden colour with peach, lime zest, honey oatmeal, fresh basil, and spicy oak in the background. Medium to full-bodied, almond biscuit, ripe citrus and peach, a good tang and grip in the middle, though perhaps a little loose through the finish. Good wine. I’m thinking roast chicken.”  

92 points, Gary Walsh, The Wine Front, December 2018