Cable Bay Awatere Valley Chardonnay 2019

From grapes grown on naturally low yielding, 25 year old vines, from our Estate owned Awatere Valley, Marlborough Vineyard. This wine has tension, depth and complexity, with poached pear, key lime pie, smoky apple-wood and cinnamon aromas complementing an intense palate. The palate is concentrated and mouth-filling but with lovely freshness and vibrancy. It has great structure, nutty creaminess and beautiful focus and length. The mineral texture gestures to the river stones and fossilised shells that the vines grow on.

This wine is from predominantly Mendoza clone Chardonnay vines grown on a single vineyard site in our estate owned Awatere Valley Vineyard. A beautiful sub-region of Marlborough, it features natural terraces leading down to the Awatere River. The soils graduate from a heavy stony base to fine river silt. Typically, stony soil will provide wines with lifted aromatics while the river silt soils add weight and texture to the palate. The vines are closely planted, on these stony, low vigour soils and the region benefits from low rainfall. As a result the Chardonnay that grows here is low yielding, and of premium quality.

The ripe fruit was hand-harvested early in the morning whilst the grapes were nice and cool, transported to the winery, and immediately pressed. The juice was allowed some air contact between press and tank to deepen the flavour profile. It was then transferred directly to barrel, leaving textural Chardonnay juice to enter wild yeast fermentation and full malolactic fermentation. Following barrel ferments, the wine aged in oak (5% new) on full lees for 12months before assemblage and bottling.

Wild fermented and matured in French oak for 12 months