Paritua Stone Paddock Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2020

Description

• Pineapple
• Lychee
• Nougat
• Full, rich finish

The 2020 Stone Paddock Chardonnay is a lightly oaked wine. Showing ripe tropical fruit of lychee, cantaloupe, candied pineapple, peach aromas and hints of nougat. The gentle influence of battonage accentuates the sweet melon and peach flavours, the texture is creamy and luscious with a full, rich finish.

The Chardonnay is planted on the most western part of the vineyard and the clones are 95 and 15 which are grown on a standard two cane canopy. Fruit exposure is limited to achieve the optimum flavour and phenolic balance.

2020, the Covid vintage… we were able to harvest through the lockdown with health protocols in place and thank goodness for that because 2020 was excellent. With a warm and dry season, the entire region basked in optimum sunshine hours during the summer. The fruit was clean, the flavours concentrated and it will certainly be one to remember.

The fruit is de-stemmed to press and after a slow and gentle pressing cycle the juice was settled with 50% fermented in stainless steel tanks at relatively warm temperatures, to minimize reductive or flinty notes. The other 50% was fermented in seasoned oak puncheons (500L). We use selected yeast strains to create complexity and depth. The wine is kept on yeast lees for several months with regular lees stirring (battonage) to help develop complexity and richness, before blending and filtration.

Food Pairing: This Chardonnay is a refreshing style and will be a great accompaniment with seafood and poultry dishes.