This wine is a complex, textural wine that exhibits the slight creaminess on the mid-palate that is the key characteristic of Chardonnay. The structure is slightly rich but still finishes fresh and smooth.

Mahi, means ‘our work, our craft’, whilst the symbol represents the strength, life & growth of the native fern, with the understanding that wine should never be rushed, respecting its ability to evolve naturally over time

Fruit for this wine was sourced from Mahi's vineyards; Bruce and Beverley Cook, Taylor, Twin Valleys. All of the vines were intensively hand-tended and the grapes hand-picked and then taken to the winery for whole-cluster pressing. The resulting juice went straight to French oak barrels and fermented with indigenous yeast from the fruit.  After fermentation the wine sat on yeast lees for eleven months prior to bottling. The aim for this Chardonnay was to retain a fresh structure with a complex palate. Wine makers therefore minimised the malolactic fermentation so that it is really the vineyards, fruit, wild-ferment and barrel characters that make up the complex nose and palate.

After a cool start to the growing season in September we had a warm spell late November and early December which really suited flowering. Christmas was slightly cooler then midway through January it started to heat up and the ripening season has been one of our warmer ones of late. In general the acids in the juice are slightly lower than some years, and there have been some blocks we picked a bit earlier to retain that acidity, leaving the balance out to get the texture on the palate that we focus on.

After about 18 months of drought like conditions we had two rains just as we were easing into picking. To be fair a few of us were pretty nervous when the second rain came through, but as so often happens the beautiful mountains to the north-west of us protected us from the next bout of showers and the last three weeks made all the difference, giving us clear fine weather and allowing us the leisure of picking as our parcels ripened.