Mount Riley Marlborough Chardonnay 2018

Description

"Fruit-focused, silken-textured Chardonnay with melon, white peach and subtle ginger and nut lees flavours. Reasonably light, delicate style that's pleasantly ethereal. A good match with light-flavoured seafood dishes. Great value at this price" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Mar 2019

Bright straw colour in the class. Citrus and stonefruit aromas are wonderfully complimented by spice, gunflint and toast from a touch of oak. An approachable wine with inviting bright fruit flavours and great texture and roundness. The oak influence delivers complexity and great intensity on the palate.

The grapes for this wine were grown in the Wairau Valley region of Marlborough. This wine is made from grape parcels where 80% was fermented in new and seasoned French barriques and 20% was fermented in stainless steel.

This style of winemaking enables the winemakers to craft a wine with bright fruit forward characters while still ensuring complexity and the depth of flavours imparted by oak influence. Partial malolactic fermentation was allowed for the barrel portion of the wine while it aged for 7 months on lees.

Food Pairing: Drinking well now; this wine will continue to drink well up to 2022. Match with seafood, light meats and cheese.