Nose
Aromas of citrus, cumquat, pineapple, citrus blossom, white peach
Palate
Lively acidity with flinty river pebble dryness. Lime and lemon juice with an almond glossiness and a whisper of lactose. The acidity sets this up as a long-term cellaring prospect which will develop a touch of richness as it matures.
Growing Conditions
The Chardonnay is sourced off unirrigated blocks of Mendoza clone (Gin-Gin clone) resulting in concentrated fruit and the vines are caned pruned to ensure the fruit is of the highest quality. Throughout the growing season two passes with the vine trimmer were required to ensure maximum fruit exposure. The vines were not leaf plucked this year to protect the bunches from sunburn.
Bottling
14th December 2021
Winemaking
Once hand harvested the fruit was transferred in small slotted bins directly to cool rooms and chilled to 8°C overnight. The bunches were gently whole bunch pressed to around 500L/tonne, this allowed us to only extract the juice from the fleshy interior of the berries and not the juice next to the skin, thereby minimising phenolic (tannic) pick up and resulting in a juice with exquisite seamless structure. The chardonnay juice was then pumped to a stainless-steel tank with one to one ratio height to width, where it was chilled and settled for 24 hours before gravity flow to French barriques and 500L puncheons, of which one third were new. Fermentation was initiated by wild yeast (indigenous yeasts found in the vineyard) the barrels were transferred to the cool room for fermentation and the temperature was kept below 20°C to retain primary fruit characters. After fermentation the barrels were stirred weekly for a month, this resulted in a creamy mouth feel to complement the linear acid structure of the wine.
The wine spent 9 months in barrel before being blended and bottled.
Aging
Should develop further complexity with 10-12 years careful cellaring
Appearance
Pale straw with lime green hues
