Hunter's Marlborough Chardonnay 2023

Description

Apricot, Hazelnut, Oak

The wine has beautiful flavours of grapefruit and citrus characters with some white peach undertones. Complex and flinty nose compliments the tightly structured palate that shows bright stone fruit and toasted hazelnuts. Good balance from the toasty oak integration that complements the silky texture on the palate. This wine drinks very well on release but will develop and evolve over the next 5-7 years. We are proud that this wine is Certified Vegan by the NZ Vegetarian Society.

At the start of the growing season conditions was damp and humid with budburst slightly earlier than average. Some rain during the growing season provided plenty of nutrient but didn’t impact any fruit set. Mild summer conditions help with even ripening of the grapes which allowed perfect conditions for the fruit to be picked at optimum ripeness. Overall we received average yields with optimum quality fruit.

Chardonnay grapes were sourced from the Rapaura and Omaka sub regions of Marlborough. We 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 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 12 months before racked off its lees ready for bottling.