Astrolabe Province Marlborough Chardonnay 2018

Description

• French oak
• Ripe stone friut
• Vanilla & butter
• Gentle acidity

"Teasingly aromatic Chardonnay that combines ripe citrus, white peach and citrus flavours with spicy oak, toasted nut and ginger characters. A moderately weighty wine with a creamy texture" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Jul 2020

"The 2018 vintage was hand-picked at two sites, in the lower Wairau Valley and the Southern Valleys, and fermented and matured for 10 months in French oak barriques and puncheons. Fragrant and mouthfilling, it has excellent depth of ripe, peachy, slightly toasty flavours, showing good complexity, gentle acidity and a creamy-smooth finish. It’s already drinking well" Michael Cooper

Flavours of full ripe melon, dried stone fruits and fig, nut meal and brûlée notes, with some light lees-iness. This is a wine of gentle creaminess and an elegant texture, with tropical and stonefruit flavours, a pleasing weight and a long, dry finish. Drinking at best after two years’ bottle age, and will age gracefully thereafter.

The Astrolabe Marlborough Chardonnay is made from grapes grown at Astrolabe Farm Vineyard in the lower Wairau Valley, Wrekin Vineyard in the Southern Valleys and Dumgree in the Awatere Valley. The fruit was hand-picked and whole-bunch pressed. Only the free-run juice was used, and this was fermented in French oak puncheons and barriques, using both select and wild yeast. Frequent bâtonnage, full malolactic fermentation and ten months’ barrel maturation have added to the texture and complexity. This wine is unfined.

Food Pairing: Pairs well with poultry, roasted cauliflower with tahini, miso or creamy mushrooms.