Analysis:
Alcohol: 14.5% | pH: 3.44 | Titratable acidity: 7.04 g/L
Bottling Date: August 2013
Cellaring: 5 - 7 Years
Tasting Notes:
A Chardonnay that combines all the elements from well integrated oak through tree fruits, stone fruits and some interesting nut and lees components. The nose shows the ripeness of the vintage with nectarine, peach, baked golden apple and tropical notes along with some vanilla, hazelnut and fresh lemon zest. The palate is quite full with crisp, zingy acidity that nicely contrasts the ripe pineapple, Ambrosia apple, peach, spiced pear, caramel apple, subtle oak and creme brulee notes that linger on the long finish. Try this with the retro dish of ham steaks with pineapple or spaghetti carbonara using maple smoked bacon. — Rhys Pender, Master of Wine
Wine Making:
The 2012 Chardonnay grapes benefited from one of the great growing years with exceptional weather offering warm and steady temperatures leading to great flavours, sugars, acid and pH. The fruit was whole-cluster pressed and the juice drained by gravity flow into stainless steel tanks where it was chilled and allowed to settle for 24 hours to remove excess solids. It was then racked off its lees and inoculated with a mixture of preferred yeast strains selected for aromatic and textural contributions. The wine is i00% barrel fermented in our temperature controlled caves in a mixture of our preferred coopers (90% French oak, 1o% American oak -, 5o% new and 50% one year old). After fermentation, the wine was held in barrel for approximately 9 months and the yeast lees were stirred fortnightly to further enhance mouth feel. The wine was then removed from barrels, stabilized and filtered in preparation for bottling, which occurred in August 2013.
