Tasting Notes
We seek to enhance the pure fruit flavours in our Unoaked Chardonnay and our 2011 vintage has produced stunning citrus and stonefruit aromas of mandarin and peach. The palate is full with a creamy mouth richness and vibrant acidity leading to a nice long dry finish. A superb wine that can be enjoyed with chicken, fish and summer salads!
Food Matching
This wine is divine with a Caesar salad with grilled chicken legs, smoky pancetta, cos leaves, parmesan and chunks of ciabatta croutons. Generously drizzle over your dressing of garlic, anchovies, creme fraiche, olive oil and lemon juice. And don’t forget the freshly ground pepper. Enjoy!
Viticulture and Winemaking
The 2011 vintage in Marlborough continued on the fine run of vintages from this region. Bud burst was slightly earlier than 2010 due to an un-seasonally warm September. Fruit set was moderately above average, leading to slightly higher than normal crop levels. Careful fruit thinning early in the season brought the vines into perfect balance and also enabled us to avoid any disease pressure. We experienced rain leading into March, but the grapes remained in perfect condition. By mid to late March typical cool Autumn nights and sunny cloudless days allowed the moderately cropped vines to reach full ripeness and be harvested on schedule in early April. The majority of the fruit for this wine came from the Lower Wairau Valley.
The grapes were machine harvested early in the morning to preserve fruit flavour, then destemmed, lightly crushed and pressed with minimal skin contact. The clear juice was then fermented at moderately low temperatures in stainless steel tanks with a selected yeast strain to help preserve varietal character. Following fermentation, the wine was left on light lees for 5 months to enhance texture and complexity. The wine was then prepared for bottling in late November.