Palate
Delightful scents of white field flowers, citrus and honeydew melon. The palate’s pliable core of citrus, melon and dried pear is moulded around a subtle and fine nut meal texture with a crème brulee richness. A soft mineral acidity finishes the wine.Howard Park Chardonnay is a fresh, vibrant fruit driven wine with an elegant and sophisticated, tight palate structure. These characteristics define our Chardonnay as a modern Australian barrel fermented style.
Growing Conditions
vintage was another challenging yet rewarding vintage for the premium, southern grape growing regions of Western Australia. Winter rainfall was close to the long term average. The growing and ripening seasons, while largely warm and dry were punctuated with rains and windy conditions that did affect set and subsequent yields in the Chardonnay clones. Warm, dry weather in late summer and early autumn delivered even ripening as the harvesting of Chardonnay continued throughout March. The mild end to the season saw all varieties ripen perfectly with high natural acidity and fine fruit structure.
Winemaking
Each batch is hand-picked at between 12.2 to 12.7° Be and cooled overnight and hand sorted before whole bunch pressing to extract only the free run juice. Fermentation occurs in a combination of new and older French oak, with a maximum of 40% new oak. Temperature is controlled between 18°C to 22°C and the lees are stirred during the maturation period. After 10 months in barrel, the wine is blended to tank and held for 2 months prior to fining and filtration. Bottling occurs in January of the year post the vintage and is released after 6 months of bottle maturation.
Appearance
Green gold in colour.
