• French oak
• Textural
• Creamy
• Fresh

"Complex, fragrant, fruit, soil and oak centric bouquet with aromas of white peach and quince, apple and white flowers, vanilla and apricot stone, white smoke and stony soils. On the palate - full-bodied yet very fine and complex, lovely mouthfeel with textures from fine wood tannins, medium+ acidity, tension and poise. Flavours of fruit and wood melt together as the wine warms and opens up in glass. Still youthful so will continue to develop in cellar, but is totally drinkable now and through 2026+" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier

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 still retains acidity giving length and freshness.

This fruit comes from three vineyards; the Taylor Vineyard which is in the Rapaura area, the Twin Valleys vineyard, which they have been working with since 2003 and a ten rows of Clone 1066 from the Mahi home block.

The 2019 vintage proved to be their earliest finish ever, which also fits in with their earliest start by five days, starting on March 7th. Strangely enough, although it was their earliest vintage it was definitely not their warmest. This vintage can be defined by a number of characteristics, starting with lower rainfall. From Christmas Day until the end of harvest and overall they received only 75% of their normal rain through the entire growing period. They also saw smaller berries, especially in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but also in Sauvignon. This was caused predominantly by some rainfall at flowering in December, meaning the pollen fell to the ground and did not fertilise all of the flowers. With no rain there was hardly any Botrytis inoculum around and the fruit was the cleanest they have seen in a number of years. This was also helped by the warmer days, especially since the start of January where the deviation from average growing degree days really kicked in.

The aim for this Chardonnay is to retain a fresh structure with a complex palate. It is the vineyards, wild-ferment and barrel characters that make up the complex nose and palate. All of the vines were intensively handtended and the grapes hand-picked and then taken to the winery for wholecluster 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 blending and bottling.