Mahi Alchemy Marlborough Chardonnay 2021

Mahi Alchemy Marlborough Chardonnay 2021Elegant in structure showing green melon and citrus peel aromas. Creamy in the mid palate giving weight and texture, with the acidity assisting the linearity and length. This year, our 21st, was a very distinctive one characterised by the early timing of it, the small crops, and also the cleanliness of the fruit. Starting on March the 4th it was the earliest start, and finish, that we have had, and the weird thing was that it was not a hot vintage, so

Elegant in structure showing green melon and citrus peel aromas. Creamy in the mid-palate giving weight and texture, with the acidity assisting the linearity and length.

This year, our 21st, was a very distinctive one characterised by the early timing of it, the small crops, and also the cleanliness of the fruit. Starting on March the 4th it was the earliest start, and finish, that we have had, and the weird thing was that it was not a hot vintage, so it wasn’t heat that caused the grapes to ripen early. The key factor was the low crops, as healthy vines will ripen a lower crop faster than a heavier one, and these low crops were caused by an untimely rain period over flowering, which was in early December. The rain caused the pollen to fall to the ground, rather than fertilise flowers, leaving small open bunches, that allowed air to flow around the berries and so we had no Botrytis at all. Covid still had an impact in that, for the first time, all of our team were NZ-based, rather than the usual array of nationalities, but it was a super experienced group, and everything flowed beautifully. It ended up being our shortest and smallest vintage for a while and it was so easy that no-one even got tired?! Felt like the vintage that wasn’t but it will provide some seriously good wines!!

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.