Mahi Alchemy Marlborough Chardonnay 2018

Description

• French oak
• Green melon
• Citrus peel
• Creamy mouthfeel

Elegant and structured, showing green melon and citrus peel aromas with floral notes also. Creamy and textural with nice weight and a long finish.

The end of January/start of February is the time of veraison for us in Marlborough and we could see that at this stage we were about a week ahead of previous vintages, and that we also had low bunch numbers. Then came the rain of February, not a great concern, but rainfall at veraison often produces bigger berries and we started getting a bit concerned as big berries usually means tighter bunches, less airflow and higher disease incidence.. March provided some respite from the wet and warm conditions. Still slightly above average and after a period of dry weather we kicked into vintage on March 19, taking our Rosé from the Brancott Valley and Winery vineyard. This was our second earliest start and it was pretty well full-on for the next 19 days.

The aim for this Chardonnay is to retain a fresh structure with complexity and texture rather than producing a wine that is too broad. This fruit comes from a small parcel from the Taylor vineyard, located in the Rapaura region of Marlborough. The area was once old riverbed and as such the soils have a lot of river stones,  combined with silt and clay components also. Typically it is a slightly warmer area of the valley and as such we find the fruit ripens relatively early. The vines were cropped low to ensure ripeness and palate richness. All of the grapes were hand-picked and then whole-cluster pressed. The resulting juice went straight to French oak barrels and fermented with indigenous yeast from the vineyard. After fermentation the wine sat on yeast lees for fifteen months prior to bottling.