Chardonnay

VITICULTURE 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, clayloam
soils, 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.
WINEMAKING The vineyards were hand-picked separately at high ripeness levels and
whole-bunch pressed using very low maceration press cycles. The resulting juice was lightly
settled and racked to French oak barriques (20% new).
The juice went through a natural indigenous yeast fermentation, 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 December 2016 with
an alcohol of 14.5%, pH 3.3 and acidity of 6.2 g/l.