The aim for this Chardonnay is to retain a fresh structure with complexity and texture rather than producing a wine that is too broad.

This fruit comes from a small parcel from the Badlands vineyard, located in the Rapaura region of Marlborough. The area was once old riverbed and as such the soils have a lot of river stones, combined with silt and clay components also. Typically, it is a slightly warmer area of the valley and as such we find the fruit gives more tropical notes.

All of the grapes were hand-picked and then whole-cluster pressed. The resulting juice went straight to French oak barrels and fermented with indigenous yeast from the vineyard. After fermentation the wine sat on yeast lees for fifteen months prior to bottling.

VARIETY: Chardonnay
WINEGROWING TEAM: Brian Bicknell, Pat Patterson, Phoebe Cathcart, our focused growers, and brilliant vintage staff
ALCOHOL: 14.4%
TITRATABLE ACIDITY: 6.2 g/L
RESIDUAL SUGAR: <1.0 g/L
BRIX AT HARVEST: 23.5
HARVEST: Hand-picked, 1 April

TASTING NOTE