2020 Calrossie Vineyard Chardonnay

Tasting
The 2020 Calrossie Vineyard Chardonnay boasts all of the typical cues of the Calrossie Vineyard, with great palate weight and generosity from its rich clay soils. Radiant gold in colour, this vintage delivers flavours of fresh lime and grapefruit, alongside aromas of citrus, biscuit, oak and toasted hazelnut. It was matured in French oak barrels (20% new) for just over 3 years prior to being bottled in June 2023. It will drink well from now but continue to reveal more with time through to late 2028.

Vineyard and vintage
100% Chardonnay, the fruit was sourced entirely from the Calrossie Vineyard, a single hillside vineyard located in the lower Awatere Valley in Marlborough, New Zealand that was planted in 2003. Soils are wind-blown gravels over rich clay. The 2020 vintage was pitch-perfect for all of New Zealand, but particularly so for Marlborough, with great fruit quality and physiological ripening but not at the expense of acid retention. This is the first single-vineyard release of Chardonnay from this vineyard..

Vinification
The fruit was hand harvested into small picking bins before being transported to the winery where it was whole-bunch pressed into tank. Once settled, the wine was racked into French oak barriques (20% new), where it was wild fermented and then matured for nearly 3 1⁄2 years. The wine was kept on gross lees in barrel before being lightly filtered prior to bottling. Vegan friendly. Contains sulphites.

Technical
13.5% Alcohol by Volume
0.0g/L Residual Sugar
3.4 pH
20mg/L Free SO2