2023 Chardonnay
2023 Chardonnay
Our first "natively fermented" wine. Fresh and soft with creamy lemon curd, peach and vanilla flavours.
Have you ever tried a natively fermented wine? What does this even mean?
Natively fermented wine is when the yeast that is naturally found on the grapes in the vineyard are encouraged and utilised by the winemaker to ferment the juice into wine. This can often end up with dirty, unsavoury characters in the wine if done incorrectly, however, we have used all our experience and modern technology to cleanly and successfully ferment our 2022 Chardonnay this year using only the yeast found on the grapes.
Why did we do a native ferment? We did it because we wanted to push the boundaries a little and to bring more complexity and texture to our Chardonnay.
Read tasting notes below
Flavour Profile
Flavour Profile
Soft and creamy but with a fresh zing of acidity.
White peach, pineapple, nectarine and citrus aromas, intertwined with notes of roasted almonds, brioche and cream.
*Vegan friendly
Winemaking
Winemaking
This Chardonnay was sourced from a premium vineyard close to the winery and the fruit was harvested at sunrise.
The grapes were pressed off very quickly to separate the juice from the skins as soon as possible and to prevent the phenolics from leeching into the juice and the resulting wine.
"I wanted this wine to be soft and delicate so minimising the skin contact helped eliminate the undesirable extraction of phenolics from the skins and seeds, and reduced the need for me to soften the wine further before bottling.” Dan Berrigan
The fermentation was initially completed in stainless steel vats and the fermenting wine was transferred to barrels when almost dry.
For 8 months this Chardonnay was matured in a combination of new, 1 yr old and 2 yr old fine-grained French oak barriques whilst also receiving regular lees stirring (re-suspending the yeast that has fallen to the bottom of the tank after ferment). This helped soften the wine naturally and built the mid-palate while introducing more flavour and complexity into the wine.
Food Matches
Food Matches
Soft and hard Cheeses
Seafood
Caesar salad
Pan seared fish
Awards
Awards
Silver medal Melbourne International Wine Challenge (2019)
Silver medal - Sydney Royal Wine Show (2018)
Winemaker's Notes
Winemaker's Notes
*Vegan friendly