Mt Difficulty Roaring Meg Central Otago Chardonnay 2023

Description

Floral, Oak, Pastry

Citrus floral notes, toasted brioche and a hint of cashew on the nose. Initially some classically rich Chardonnay fruit and toast notes, which then picks up on the fresh and crisp finish, highlighting the purity and lightness the concrete tanks bring to the wine. The wine finishes with refreshing grapefruit and lemon zest. Roaring Meg Chardonnay will improve for three to five years given optimal cellaring conditions.

The grapes for this wine come from our Cromwell basin vineyards managed by our dedicated viticultural team.

The 2021 growing season was a return to the enviable, lower stress conditions that Central Otago is famous for. We started with a warm spring, which gave the vines a good start. January was cooler and wetter, which replenished the soils and slowed growth, giving small, intensely flavoured grapes. By the time the beginning of harvest rolled around, we were just ahead of our long term average in terms of rate of ripening, and with fruit in fantastic condition. Yields were thankfully back to average in most areas, with only Bannockburn cropping slightly lower. This has given wines with excellent flavour and structure.

The fruit was hand-picked at the end of March from Bannockburn and Pisa. The fruit was handled in an oxidative fashion, destemmed and pressed to concrete egg-shaped tanks. The egg shape of the fermenters allows the wine to circulate naturally adding depth and texture to the wine without oak flavours We fermented 70% of the juice in concrete eggs, with the balance in old barriques, all with full solids using indigenous yeasts. Whilst maturing no lees stirring was utilised. The wine went through a full malolactic fermentation in spring, after which the barriques were stirred for a period. The wine was racked and filtered before being bottled, unfined in March.