Man O' War Valhalla Waiheke Island Chardonnay 2022

Description

Apple, Oak, Spice

"A super inviting bouquet of brioche and baked goods, ripe yellow peach and baked apple, Brazil-nut and spice. Full-bodied and dry, there’s a light creamy texture then impacts from the fruit and fine tannins, acidity and smoky oak. Well made and rather delicious with best drinking from day of purchase through 2030" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Nov 2024

"A strong streak of flint followed by voluminous charry oak aromas over an array of roast nuts, apple crates and Thai mango. The palate has concentrated flavours of sweet peppers and nectarine trimmed in drying, grippy oak with a crisp green malic acidity providing needed contrast. A wine consisting of burnished and sweetly spicy, dusty flavours with almost no high tones, this will need at least a year or two to unclench and absorb its forest of wood. Expect it to turn toasty and dense while retaining some flinty reduction" Stephen Wong, The Real Review, Feb 2025

Valhalla Chardonnay 2022 offers intense savoury aromas on the first pour with brioche, cashew, and hazelnut over ripe stone fruit characters with a final hint of green smoke. The aromas shift seamlessly onto the palate which shows the richness of the vintage, well tamed by the acidity and finished with a salted caramel character confirming the influence of the Pacific Ocean on the viticulture. A beautifully balanced wine, complex and rewarding, a classic Valhalla Chardonnay.

Vintage 2022 was a near perfect season with excellent conditions throughout the year with one slight hiccup being some salt damage to the leaf canopy in the vineyards due to a large storm in early February putting some pressure on the Chardonnay.

To preserve the integrity of the fruit and to give the wine an element of refinement in a hot year we carried out an early pick from our elevated hilltop vineyards which gives a fresh crisp edge to the wine. With our more sheltered sites we were able to push the fruit a little riper to provide richness and riper flavours.

All the fruit is hand harvested but then macerated to the press to increase the volume of solids in the juice. The juice is left to initiate a wild ferment on full solids, quickly being transferred to puncheon at the onset. Fast ferments are favoured and then ageing on gross lees right through to blending. No malolactic fermentation or lees stirring occurs.