Tasting Notes
This is the sixteenth vintage of our Chardonnay. The wine is made from five different vineyards. As with previous vintages, the wine shows an elegant minerality with lime-citrus, sourdough and cinnamon flavours. The tight minerality keeps a wonderful acid grip on the palate showing good aging potential. A floral note of wild, white flowers such as frangipani and almond blossom is obvious on the front of the nose and follows through the palate. Likened by many to the flavours found in the Cote de Nuits with a subtle New-world swathe of fruit, the focus here is to make an elegant wine that is great to enjoy.
Food Suggestions
The ideal accompaniment to foods such as dal masala, Spanish style paella, quail or pork belly.
In The Vineyard
This was a cool, dry vintage leading to a small crop with grapes that ripened under very healthy conditions with great potential.
Soil types: Malmesbury Shale on deep red clay, Hutton
Aspect of vineyards: East-west
Ha planted: 12
Planting distance: 4 foot x 8 foot
Vines per hectare: 3500-4000
Trellis system: Double cordon
Irrigation: Supplementary drip
Altitude: 150-350m
Temperature: 25-30C
Rainfall: +-600mm/annum
About The Harvest
Chardonnay grapes, from 6 blocks were handpicked at sugars varying from 22° -25 °Balling ,to ensure a variety and complex blend of potential flavours.
Harvest dates: Early February to Mid February 2024
In The Cellar
Barrel fermented with partial pure yeast strain inoculation and some with natural yeasts. A 30 % portion was allowed to go through malolactic fermentation. The wine was stirred once during maturation in barrel, to create a creamy, harmonious blend between wood and grape flavours. Fined with bentonite and vegecol making this wine vegan friendly Crossflow filtered and bottled under screwcap to ensure quality.
Wood Elevation: Ten months in French Oak; 10 % New French Oak – Allier; Medium Toasted 35 % 2 nd Fill French Oak – Medium Toasted 45 % 3 rd Fill French Oak and 10% Concrete eggs
Coopers: D&J, Mercury, Louis Latour