Novum 2019

A limpid pale yellow augurs restraint. Very savoury. Chalky and oyster shell-saline, with the fruit a flashback rather than primary focus. Riffs on oatmeal biscuit, apricot pith, barley sugar, nashi pear and raw cashew are reeled across a spool of tensile acidity, punctuated with a gentle pucker. A high-wire act, this is balletic in its elegance and confident in the way it moves across the mouth. Some sexy oak nestled in there somewhere as an adjunct rather than a scream. Nothing jangly or coarse. Just strident, persuasive and extremely fine of length and feel. Ned Goodwin, MW

Where Novum Chardonnay comes from

The fruit for this wine has come from a very beloved (and old) Chardonnay block located in the central Wairau plains planted entirely with the Mendoza clone. Nobody seems to quite remember the exact year that it was planted, but sometime in the early 1980s, making these vines around 35 years old. Originally an old riverbed, this block is naturally warm day and night due to the radiating effect of the exposed greywacke rock lying beneath the vines. The rock radiates heat up into the canopy making this vineyard an ideal site for ripening Chardonnay.

The grapes were whole bunch pressed using a very low maceration press cycle. The resulting batch of juice was cold settled for 12 hours before being transferred to barrel with light lees for fermentation. Lees stored from last year’s vintage was also added to the wine just prior to the wild fermentation kicking off.

Post fermentation the wine remained on lees in barrel (10% new oak) with the lees stirred monthly on the full moon. After aging for 11 months the wine was gently transferred out of barrel prior to being bottled in April 2020.