Greywacke Marlborough Chardonnay 2017

Greywacke Marlborough Chardonnay 2017French oak Pinapple & pastry Lemon curd custard Hazelnut & spices "Youthful bouquet with aromas of fresh, ripe stone and citrus fruits, sweet new barrel and mild toasty wood spices. Quite complex. On the palate dry, rich in flavour and texture with a mix of yellow orchard fruits and citrus, apple and plenty of wood spice and toasty flavours. Plenty of acidity and wood tannins reveal a strong foundation for the fruit and ageing. Well made, youthful,

• French oak
• Pinapple & pastry
• Lemon curd custard
• Hazelnut & spices

"Youthful bouquet with aromas of fresh, ripe stone and citrus fruits, sweet new barrel and mild toasty wood spices. Quite complex. On the palate - dry, rich in flavour and texture with a mix of yellow orchard fruits and citrus, apple and plenty of wood spice and toasty flavours. Plenty of acidity and wood tannins reveal a strong foundation for the fruit and ageing. Well made, youthful, vibrant egaging. Best drinking from mid to late 2022 and through 2028+" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier

"Rich wine that gains concentration and ripeness from being late-picked and using a high proportion of Mendoza clone. Almost luscious Chardonnay with honey, ripe peach, nectarine, bran biscuit, roost ginger and spicy oak flavours" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Feb 2021

Exotic tropical notes of pawpaw and pineapple, some pink grapefruit and red delicious apple, a smoky dukkah-like fusion of roasted hazelnuts and spices, a layer of flaky pastry with lemon curd custard. A unique and seductive sweet-savoury concoction that is both highly concentrated and very dry – a tight but evolving wine with great power and potential.

The grapes for this wine are primarily the low-yielding Mendoza clone, known for its concentration of flavour and crisp acidity; the balance is Clone 95. The majority of fruit was sourced from the lower reaches of the Brancott Valley and Fairhall, grown in gravelly, clay-loam soils, with the remainder coming from Renwick and Rapaura, grown in young alluvial soils containing high proportions of New Zealand’s ubiquitous greywacke river stones. The vineyards were mostly trained using a two-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis, with the balance on the divided Scott Henry canopy management system.

The vineyards were hand-picked separately at high ripeness levels and whole-bunch pressed using very low maceration press cycles. Some of the fruit was pressed directly to barrel, the balance was lightly settled and then racked to barrel. The juice went through a natural indigenous yeast fermentation in French oak barriques (20% new), with the final phase continuing for many months. The wine received occasional lees stirring and underwent a complete malolactic fermentation. It was transferred out of oak after 18 months and bottled in November 2018 with alcohol 14.2%, pH 3.35 and acidity of 6.0 g/l.