• Toasty oak
• Apricot & lemon
• Butter & hazelnut
• Luscious & creamy

"Rich, concentrated Chardonnay with savoury, oyster-shell, toast, sizzled butter and spicy oak flavours. A weighty and quite complex wine that has benefited from a little bottle age. Good acidity helps drive a lengthy finish" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Sep 2020

"A classy nose of cut grass, hazelnut, caffe latte and hints of spice are matched by the svelte, creamy palate with nectarine on the appetising finish" Decanter World Wine Awards 2021

"Bright, medium straw-yellow with a slight green hue, even throughout. The bouquet is softly full and powerful; tightly bound with lemon, stonefruit, entwined with aromas of hazelnuts, popcorn, whipped butter, delicate spices and flint. Medium-full bodied, the palate is lively with aromas of lemon sherbet, apricot, flows with taut acidity; unveiling hazelnuts, roasted popcorns along a fine chalky phenolic line, provides texture. Oak spices possess the finishing line, prickly and lifted, lends a long bright finish. The lively acid tension supports the fruit, presents elegantly, smooth-flowing on a fine flinty phenolic line with a luscious creamy flow. This is an elegantly structured Chardonnay with flavours of lemon, stonefruit; secondary toasty, nutty detail, with taut acid on a chalky phenolic line. Match with grilled crayfish and seafood chowder over the next 5-8 years. Fruit from Lower Waihopai Valley. Handpicked, whole bunch press. Fermented in barrels to 13% alc, wild MLF, battonage, aged for 10 months. Further aged in bottle for 40 months approx" Candice Chow, Raymond Chan Reviews, Aug 2020

Aromatic notes of popcorn, roasted hazelnuts and spice are followed through on the palate along with a subtle flinty character. Silky and luscious with a fine acid drive and good length.

The fruit for this wine was sourced exclusively from a single vineyard in the Lower Waihopai Valley, Marlborough. This vineyard is meticulously cared for by Peter and Anne Reed, who also provide the grapes for our Raptor Chardonnay. The fruit was hand harvested and then gently whole bunch pressed to tank before immediately going to barrel. It spends very little time in tank – only hours, compared to days settling for our other parcels.

The wine then goes through a wild primary fermentation followed with a wild malolactic fermentation, where it is stirred on its lees before completion and then left to settle naturally in barrel for close to 10 months. Winemaker Chloe Gabrielsen describes creating this Chardonnay as a blank canvas. Only the very best barrels from within the batch have been selected. Each barrel adding a layer of complexity to the blend because we have so many components to choose from, adding different aspects of oak influence from the coopers, texture from oak or solids and flavour profile from the fermentations. Creating this special release Chardonnay is less work, more play.