• French oak
• Stonefruit
• Subtle citrus
• Creamy mouth-feel

Typical light golden of a healthy young Chardonnay. Definitive stonefruit Chardonnay varietal character with a touch of citrus alongside a lovely seam of lightly toasted French oak and yeast notes. A clean, fresh 'attack' leading to a tight and linear mid-palate. Refreshing and lively fruit flavours with obvious French oak and yeast influence. A long finish with citrus flavours kicking in at the end.

De La Terre is a small family-owned boutique winery specialising in hand-made wines from an unusual mix of grape varieties. The wines are crafted by Tony Prichard, owner and winemaker, in the small earth-brick winery he built, west of Hastings. The name De La Terre, literally meaning 'of the earth', is a reference to both the vineyard soils and the earth brick construction used in the winery and cellar door.

Grapes for this wine were sourced from the same block as De La Terre's Reserve Chardonnay: Block 7, of their Hill Country Estate vineyard. These were hand harvested to ensure complete control over the fruit arriving at the winery. Once in the winery the grapes were whole bunch pressed at relatively light pressure to retain a tight and linear juice structure. In order to make a more fruit-driven style, the juice was handled with what Tony Prichard refers to as 'delayed SO2 addition' rather than the 'Hyperoxidation' technique he uses for the Reserve Chardonnay. In order to create a layer of complexity, slightly cloudy (rather than clear) juice was racked to barrels for fermentation. The juice was then aged in oak, where only  15% were new, to ensure a more fruit-driven, less oaky style. No 'wild' fermentation was used, in order to the fruit-driven component of this style. About 15% of the barrels went through malo-lactic fermentation to retain a fresher, tighter style with a fresh citrus seam running through the palate – as well as avoiding overt buttery characters. Each of the 2424 bottles produced are hand-labelled and  individually numbered. Enjoy now through to the next 3-4 years.