Mahi Twin Valleys Marlborough Chardonnay 2016

Description

An elegant and finely balanced wine. Ripe, concentrated flavours of citrus and nectarine fruit with barrel ferment nuttiness and a slightly creamy texture help to give nice weight and finish.

The aim for this Chardonnay is to retain a fresh structure rather than producing a wine that is too broad. The clone and site help with this, but also the picking decisions also work to retain acidity in the glass.

This wine comes from a small parcel in the Twin Valley Vineyard, located in the Fareham Lane area of Marlborough. The vineyard is at the western end of the Wairau Valley, at the junction with the Waihopai, and is on the top terrace. The upper terrace along the Wairau has a more complex soil, a great mixture of silt, clay and stones that give drainage but also some water-holding to help the vines through the dry periods. Being some distance from the sea the climate is also cooler. The grapes therefore typically ripen more slowly and retain an interesting mineral character. The vines were cropped low to ensure ripeness and palate richness. The grapes were then whole-cluster pressed and the high-solids juice taken straight to French barriques for fermentation with indigenous yeast. After 15 months in oak the balance was correct and took the wine from barrel.

After a cool start to the growing season in September had a warm spell late November and early December which really suited flowering. Christmas was slightly cooler then midway through January it started to heat up and the ripening season has been one of the warmer ones of late. In general the acids in the juice are slightly lower than some years, and there have been some blocks picked a bit earlier to retain that acidity, leaving the balance out to develop the texture on the palate. After about 18 months of drought like conditions gave way to two rains just as winemakers were easing into picking. A few of the team were nervous when the second rain came through, but as so often happens the beautiful mountains to the north-west of the vineyards protected them. Giving clear fine weather and allowing the leisure of picking as parcels ripened.