Astrolabe Awatere Valley Chardonnay 2021

TASTING NOTES

COLOUR/APPEARANCE Mid straw gold.

AROMA/BOUQUET Some ripe melon and dried stone fruits with vanilla and butter notes and a subtle mealiness.

PALATE A wine of very elegant texture with stone fruit, vanilla creaminess, toasty oak, pleasing weight and a long, dry and mineral finish.

AGING POTENTIAL This wine will continue to develop rewarding flavour and bottle complexity with aging.

CHARDONNAY PAIRING Pairs well with roast chicken, creamy sauces, miso, sesame, truffles or delicate mushrooms.

CHARDONNAY SERVING TEMPERATURE Cool room temperature.

Climate: The 2018-2019 growing season was warm and dry, with a shorter period between budburst and harvest than typical. Drought conditions prevailed preharvest, and some timely rain towards the end helped vine health and grape flavour development. Berry size was smaller and bunch weight less than the previous two seasons, and crop loads were well balanced to soils and vine vigour. Soils: Largely grown on a free-draining silty loam, with some on the tight clays of a steeply sloping hillside.

WINEMAKING The fruit was hand-picked and wholebunch pressed. Only the free-run juice was used, and this was fermented in French oak puncheons and barriques, using both select and wild yeast.

Frequent bâtonnage, full malolactic fermentation and ten months’ barrel maturation have added to the texture and complexity. This wine is unfined. Bottled 12th February, 2020.