Many wine drinkers still find it difficult to think beyond the ripe, tropical style of Australian chardonnay that was big in the 1990s. If that’s you, drop the pineapple-chunks-and-buttery-toast label and think more in terms of a country that can offer you chardonnay that’s luminous and bright, complex but also refreshing.

The 0.1 per cent are already buying into the most boutique Australian chardonnays. For instance, Farr Vintners, a broker that specialises in top bordeaux, lists (at £690 for a case of six in bond) Cloudburst Chardonnay, a wine made in tiny quantities among the forests of Margaret River.

The joy is that you don’t need to have a 0.1 per cent income to come in on this trend. Australia is currently proving particularly tempting to burgundy drinkers at the lower and middle end of the spectrum, too.

How the quality of Australian chardonnay compares to burgundy

“With the prices of even the ‘lowly’ Mâconnais wines going up and up, Australian chardonnays have become a much more viable option, not least because the quality continues to soar,” says Miles Davis of Vinum Fine Wines. “It’s really quite easy to find Aussie chardies equal in quality to a village burgundy for the price of a generic Bourgogne Blanc or less; further up the quality levels, premier cru quality for the price of a village wine, and so forth.”

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Short translation: you can find Australian chardonnay options that are equal in quality to wines from Burgundy, for less money.

Three Australian chardonnays for Bourgogne blanc lovers

Why £35 Australian chardonnay is worth your money

At the other end of the scale, one of the hottest wine-trade tickets in town recently was a tasting of more premium Australian chardonnay hosted by Amelia Jukes, who had so many sommeliers, wine buyers, industry stalwarts and journalists badgering her for a place that the event was over-subscribed four times over.

This doesn’t happen often. When it does, it usually means one thing: the attendees are telling themselves they’re there for professional reasons, but really they’re driven by their own thirst. Sure enough, as I worked my way around the room, I encountered several tasters planning what to buy for their own dinner tables.

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All the bottles were priced at £35 and above as Jukes aimed “to show how far Australian chardonnay producers have progressed in the past decade… [and] pinpoint exactly why these world-class wines are worth a place in every serious collector’s cellar, and several places on every serious restaurant wine list”.

I don’t expect you to be buying £35 bottles of wine very often, but that’s only a couple of pounds more than a bottle of picpoul at Pizza Express, and some of you might be tempted to swap a pizza night out for a luxed-up night in. I’d be roasting a chicken and serving it with fat chips and a green salad, making prawn cocktail or fishcakes, or pushing the boat out and doing lobster with homemade mayonnaise, with cherry tomatoes and basil. And chips again. Or just keeping things simple with a cheaper bottle and a creamy plate of tomato and crab spaghetti.

Three top-notch Australian chardonnays