Chardonnay 2020 6x75cl

• 75cl bottle

This is a medium-bodied and elegant style of Hawkes Bay Chardonnay. The palate is soft and textured with flavours of peach, intermingled with hints of butter, grilled nuts and subtle oak spice.

Vineyards

The fruit for this wine was sourced from vineyards planted in three of Hawkes Bay’s many sub regions. Bay View fruit provides ripe stonefruit characters while our vineyard sites inland on cooler river terraces above the Tutaekuri and Ngaruroro Rivers bring acidity and flinty grapefruit notes. Shoot thinning, leaf plucking and bunch thinning are all practised in the pursuit of quality.

Vintage

This was a winemaker’s dream harvest. Good sized crops were ripened under blue skies, allowing us to pick at our leisure. Not only that but it was a very early harvest which proved helpful as the pandemic cast its shadow over Hawkes Bay. Unusually for a drought plagued harvest all varieties seemed to prosper. When I think back to the legendary dry 1998 harvest, arguably the greatest red wine harvest of my thirty plus year career, it is easy to forget that the white varieties struggled in the heat, most lacking acidity and vibrancy. Not so this year, for while the days were warm and dry, the nights were cool enough for the vines to rest, retaining acidity in the fruit and bringing a rare freshness to the wines

Winemaking

The individual vineyard parcels were harvested separately in mid to late March and fermented in both tank and French oak barriques (48%). The finished wines were left on their yeast lees with regular stirring until blending and bottling. A small percentage of the wine underwent malolactic fermentation to naturally soften the wine.

Enjoy with:

• Grilled and Roasted White Meats
• Fish/Shellfish
• Salads and Picnics
• Mild Creamy Cheeses
• Mature Strong Cheeses

Ideally suited to rich seafood dishes, especially crayfish and scallops or white meat dishes.