• Oaked
• Golden peach
• Pineapple & nougat
• Silky texture

"This is fruit-forward and delightfully expressed with golden peach, pineapple, and rockmelon characters on the nose with a hint of nougat. The palate displays lovely weight and roundness, beautifully complemented by silky texture and juicy acidity. Elegant and approachable with attractive bright fruit flavours. At its best: now to 2024" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Oct 2021

The 2021 Gisborne Chardonnay is an attractive wine with a light straw colour. It delights the nose with melon, pineapple, and grapefruit with hints of hazelnut and caramel. Giving generous flavours of ripe citrus, golden peach, and juicy pawpaw. Well balanced and approachable, with lingering bright fruit notes. Enjoy this medium-bodied Chardonnay with a soft, silky texture.

The grapes for our 2021 Gisborne Chardonnay are grown at the Brunton Road Vineyard in the Patutahi Plateau, Gisborne’s youngest and most promising growing spot. The rich Kaiti clay in the soil here is famous for producing premium flavoured fruit. This spot is much warmer and drier than other areas. The grapes we grow here give our wine Golden peach, citrus, and fig notes.

Our Gisborne Chardonnay harvest occurs in mid-March. The grapes are machine-harvested in the cool mornings and evenings. The fruit is then taken to a local winery for juicing. We press the grapes gently and the free-run juice is kept separate from the pressings. The free-run juice is left to settle for 24 hours then is racked with some of the grape solids to create weight and texture. The pressings are hyper-oxidised to reduce phenolics and to add weight to our wine.

The juice is then chilled and taken to our Marlborough winery to be fermented. It is split into two batches to be fermented with different yeasts, one textural and the other fruit-focused. After fermentation, the batches are blended and aged on lees with oak staves. Weekly stirring of the lees adds a silky texture and mouthfeel. A second Malolactic fermentation occurs at this point and is stopped at 20-25% to add a creamy layer. After 5-6 months, the wine is racked off lees and oak and we bottle it as 2021 Gisborne Chardonnay.