Butterworth Te Muna Martinborough Chardonnay 2022

Description

Oak, Peach, Vanilla

"Elegant and complex, the bouquet shows ripe peach, rockmelon, vanilla, hazelnut and brioche aromas, leading to a concentrated palate offering terrific weight and richly textured mouthfeel. Beautifully framed by juicy acidity, making it flavoursome and delectably appealing. At its best: now to 2028" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Aug 2024

"A lovely bouquet and palate with scents and flavours of peaches and lemon, a tart creme-fresh and baked yellow apple. The use of French oak within the complexities of this wine is judicious and well placed with some new wood use and older wood for breadth and complexity as well as a cashew nut quality. Fine tannins and medium+ acid line, balanced and well made. Ready to drink from day of purchase and through 2029" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Aug 2024

Bright light golden hue. Sweet lifted spicy vanilla bean oak jumps from the glass, with creamy buttery undertones. Lifted notes of pretty floral reduction and ripe, freshly picked, white peach and apricot. Sixteen months on Gross Lees has given the Butterworth Chardonnay a rich mid palate texture, adding layers to the racy acid line Te Muna is famous for. The grip from the phenolics add length and breadth to the back palate, giving a chalky, oyster shell finish.

This wine is sourced from two sites being Butterworth Estate’s Julicher Te Muna Vineyard, six kilometres from the Martinborough township, and The Water Tank block at the head of the Te Muna Valley. The vines are tended by hand and are sustainably grown on two cane Vertical Shoot Positioning trellis system. 2022 was s challenging year for all varieties, with the Vineyard teams working to keep the fruit clean despite the disease pressure.

The soils of Te Muna Terraces are free-draining alluvial gravel, which are rich in minerals making it ideal for growing grapes. The climate is an extension of Martinborough and similar to Burgundy, being only slightly cooler due to higher altitude, but with long cool summers and low rainfall providing the optimum long ripening conditions for grapes.

The perfect grapes were harvested, then pressed straight to barrel without settling. The juice was fermented in 500L Puncheons and 228L mature barriques. Once dry, the wine went through full Malolactic fermentation while receiving 4 lees stirs over 4 months. After sulphuring the wine sat in barrel for 16 months for maturing. The wine received no fining, and only a light filtration before bottling.