Nose
A blend of stone fruits and citrus - there's peaches, nectarines with lemon and grapefruit.
Palate
With no oak influence, this wine is all about the fruit. The stone fruits and citrus from the nose are all on the palate, joined with a marzipan and cashew nut character. The wine is textural and layered, with an underlying creaminess all balanced with a beautiful line from the crisp acidity. Serve lightly chilled and enjoy.
Growing Conditions
From the summer rainfall & river flooding in the Swan Valley, to the threat of not ripening any of the red grapes in Margaret River, the 2017 vintage will be remembered as one of the most nerve-racking and anxious seasons. It certainly beats all of the last 10 vintages I've seen at Sandalford. Overall, the whole growing season, from Spring through to Summer / Autumn was much cooler than average. There were no heat extremes this year. This delayed the ripening of all varieties by at least 3 -4 weeks than normal. For the whites, the wines have excellent flavour concentration and structure and were harvested with a good natural acid and sugar balance.
Harvest
This Chardonnay fruit was machine picked in the middle of the night, when at it's coldest.
Winemaking
The fruit was immediately processed and using the free run juice only, underwent a long, slow ferment in stainless steel tanks with specially selected yeast strains. This wine underwent no Malolactic Fermentation. Minimal lees contact before being blended, filtered and bottled.
Appearance
Pale lemon.
