Top drops: Les Jardins de Babylone, L’Inextinct Petit Chablis, Keller riesling and Powell shiraz

• VINCENT GARDE
• The Australian
• 12:00AM May 19, 2016

Savvy wine lovers will be familiar with the lofty price tags attached to the classic wines of the great regions: Lafite from Bordeaux, Richebourg from the Cote d’Or, Barolo from Piedmont and so on. But how about petit chablis at $150 a pop? Dry German riesling at $1155? And more …

L&C Poitout Petit Chablis Franc de Pied L’Inextinct 2014, about $150.

Petit chablis is the jumping-off point to the inimitable wines of the Chablis region. That said, there is nothing entry level about this 100 per cent chardonnay wine, made from ungrafted 100-plus-year-old pre-phylloxera vines. The first impression is of an extra dimension of old vine plushness coating the intense, classically chablis attributes of line, drive and minerality. Grand cru power without the plump. About 80 dozen produced each year.www.grandmillesime.com.au

Didier Dagueneau Les Jardins de Babylon 2011, $272 for 500ml

The Dagueneau Loire Valley dry white wines are legendary for their quality and scarcity, the rarest of birds being its sauvignon blanc Pouilly Fume Asteroid at more than $1000 for a 500ml bottle. It also produces this acclaimed sweet wine — moelleux — made from petit manseng, one of the predominant grape varieties of the Jurancon region. ww.ifw.com.au

Klaus Peter Keller G-Max riesling, $1155

In 2010 a double magnum of the 2009 Klaus Peter Keller G-Max riesling sold at auction for €4000, with one European wine merchant saying it could “be compared to the Montrachet of Romanee-Conti”. A recent shipment to Australia of the 2014 G-Max sold out in a New York second for $1155 a bottle. Fortunately there are some more affordable Keller wines around, such as the riesling Von der Fels 2014 for about $62.www.heartandsoil.com.au

Powell & Son 2014 Steinert Flaxman’s Valley Shiraz, $750

With their first vintage, father and son Dave and Callum Powell have produced this quintessential Eden Valley shiraz from 120-plus-year-old vines; it compares favourably with anything from its more famous neighbours in the Barossa and Eden valleys. Amazingly agile for its size, it combines power and complexity with superb balance and length, and is reminiscent of the great Hermitage wines of Domaine Chave, where Callum has worked.www.powellandson.com