Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Analysis:
Alcohol: 13.5% | PH: 3.56 | Titratable acidity: 4.9 g/L
Bottling Date: August/September 2021
Cellaring: 3+ years
Tasting Notes:
A full-bodied, rich and ripe Chardonnay with vibrant Okanagan acidity. The nose shows complex notes of almond, popcorn, banana, papaya and caramel. The creamy textured, rich palate with crisp balancing acidity adds mango, grilled pineapple, ripe peach, apricot, lime and coconut, all with a long, evolving finish. Pair this with a cantaloupe melon and prosciutto salad, chicken roasted with preserved lemon or white fish seared with
lemon, garlic butter.
– Rhys Pender, Master of Wine
Wine Making:
The 2020 growing season was a rather average one characterized by certain weather events. Spring’s arrival was delayed, followed by bouts of rain in late May and early June which led to slightly lower yields and resultingly high-quality grapes. August added ideal summer heat, ripening the grapes slowly which extended into September. Sunny, clear skies in the fall helped make up for the late start to the season and benefited flavour development in the grapes while cool nights helped retain acidity.
Our estate grown Chardonnay grapes were handpicked in late September of 2020. They were hand sorted and then dropped whole-cluster into our pneumatic press for a gentle extraction of the juice. Gravity fed into tank; the juice was chilled overnight to settle. 25% of the juice was fermented in tank while the remaining 75% was fermented in oak barrels. Each method has advantages: fermentation in temperature-controlled tanks produces vibrant and lean wines while barrel fermentation introduces savoury and subtle oaky undertones that round out texture due to lees stirring. Partial malolactic fermentation (35%) was followed by 9 months ageing in oak for the majority of the wine (89%). The wine was blended before later being filtered and cold stabilized prior to bottling. It was then allowed to further age in bottle before its release.
