Rapaura Springs Bouldevines Vineyard Marlborough Chardonnay 2024

Description

Nougat, Oak, Peach

"Wonderfully complex and enticing, the wine shows golden peach, vanilla, roasted hazelnut, and brioche characters with a hint of lemon zest. The concentrated palate delivers richly textured mouthfeel with finely pitched acidity, finishing persistent and satisfying. Splendidly composed and structured with refinement and finesse" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Jun 2025

"Bright, even, pale yellow. The nose is full, with aromas of struck-match, roasted hazelnuts, stonefruit and citrus elements. Medium-full bodied, with aromas of white peach and lemon curd, with suggestions of pineapple, entwined with grapefruit peels, roasted hazelnuts, spice, and struck-match. The fruit is ripe with excellent flavours and flows smoothly on a refined, creamy mouthfeel, alongside enlivening acidity, lending a long, toasty finish. This Chardonnay possesses power and elegance, with an immediate appeal and ageing potential" Candice Chow, Raymond Chan Reviews, Jun 2025

"An excellent bouquet of ripe fruits led by citrus then stone with a frame of flinty mineral, a positive reduction quality, then wood spice and stony earth-smoke complexities. Full-bodied and creamy on the palate, dry with plenty of core fruit flavours that reflect the bouquet, peach and nectarine then grapefruit and barrel spices. There’s a super fine fruit and wood tannin texture and along with acidity delivers a wine of complexity and lots of style. Best drinking from 2025 through 2030" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Oct 2024

Complex and enticing grapefruit, citrus and white peach characters are complemented by struck-flint, vanilla and spicy oak flavours. This wine is textural, with great balance and length. Immediately enjoyable, this wine will reward cellaring for the next five years.

The Bouldevines Vineyard is located at the entrance to the Omaka Valley, inland from the coast. This vineyard sits in the Southern Valleys, with soils that are stony, alluvial, and free draining. The inland location is cooler, allowing the Chardonnay grapes to achieve optimum ripeness and expressive fruit flavour, while retaining vibrant acidity.

The 2023 growing season started with above average bunch numbers in most districts in Marlborough. Unsettled and cooler weather over flowering resulted in loose and lighter bunches, with the net effect of producing average yields across most varieties and regions. The weather around the time of veraison was unstable, and at times threatening. We just missed out on the destruction of the cyclone that hit the east coast of the North Island. The weather then settled into a pattern reminiscent of the harvests in the early 2000s. The nights were particularly cool, and this helped to arrest any small levels of botrytis that had started in the early unsettled weather. It was a vintage where patience was rewarded and those who waited harvested fully ripe grapes with concentrated flavours and classic acidity.

The fruit for this wine was handselected and hand-picked, then taken straight to the winery and whole-bunch pressed. After pressing, the juice was transferred to barrel, including a selection of older and new oak puncheons and barriques. A total of 30% new oak was used in the final blend. The wine completed wild fermentation and full malolactic fermentation in barrel, before aging for 10 months.