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Wine Information
Current Tasting Notes
Impressive in its youth, this is a wine to watch. A complex nose offers layers of white peach, spring florals and well integrated smoke. The palate is richly textured with fleshy stonefruit and lemon citrus. Our 2013 chardonnay is mouthfilling yet balanced with fresh acidity giving it shape and focus. An elegant wine with a lingering and lively finish.
Vineyard Notes
We selected the grapes for our 2013 chardonnay from vineyard blocks located in the Brancott, Fairhall, Ben Morven and Central Wairau Valley sub-regions. These vineyards grow a mix of our preferred low yielding Mendoza and B95 clones and the vines excel in their alluvial soils. Each site produces a unique flavour profile and allows for an assemblage of a complex and balanced wine. 2013 was a growing season for the books. Ideal spring conditions during flowering and bud burst gave our vines great balance come bunch development. Fastidious canopy management through the mild and sunny growing season ensured fruit developed then ripened at an ideal rate. There were no seasonal pressures in 2013 and picking decisions were based soley on grape and seed flavours.
Production Notes
We hand picked our vineyards according to their flavour profile over a 16 day period. Harvest commenced on the 26th of March, one week earlier than 2012, finishing on the 11th of April. Analysis at time of harvest showed an average brix level of 23.0, 3.21 pH and 10.38 TA. Fruit displayed ripe but precise flavours.
Winemaker Notes
After gentle pressing, juice was 100% barrel fermented with a high solids content in French oak. The wine remained in barrel, 20% of it new, for one year prior to bottling. It enjoyed regular lees stirring to build palate weight and lift aromatics and about 70% saw malolactic fermentation. The final blend was determined in January 2014 and bottled the following June. Final analysis of our 2013 chardonnay showed a pH of 3.21, TA of 6.93 g/L, RS of 3.0 g/L and an alcohol of 14%.