Hunter's Marlborough Chardonnay 2018

Description

Stone fruits and flinty characters combine to give this wine a modern Chardonnay nose. The palate is tightly wound around a dense fruit core. In the mouth, the wine shows nutty characters and soft acid. This wine is ready to drink but will also reward aging for the next 7 years.

A warm Spring without frosts greeted the growing season and encouraged a very quick flowering period. The Summer was warm and dry up until Christmas but became very wet in the New Year. Winemakers did not need to irrigate our vines for the remainder of the season which was very unusual for Marlborough. Ripe flavours at low sugar levels allowed us to pick early compared with previous years.

Chardonnay grapes were sourced from the Rapaura, Renwick and Omaka sub regions of Marlborough. Hunter's have been using the same vineyards for many years which gives the wine a certain level of consistency. The grapes were picked by machine or hand depending on the block and pressed without sulphur to a stainless steel vat. The cloudy juice was then transferred into 500 litre French oak puncheons for fermentation. Indigenous yeasts were employed for alcoholic fermentation after which, 80% malolactic fermentation occurred. The wine was aged in puncheons on yeast lees for 10 months before blending and bottling. A small amount of lees stirring occurred.