2020 Chardonnay

Production – 318 cases

Colour: Straw gold

Bouquet: Floral jasmine and citrus blossom with crème brulee.

Palate: Juicy white peaches and apricot Danish pastry notes work alongside nutty nuances of roasted almonds. A hint of toast from judicious use of French oak. A custard creaminess from battanage lead into a refreshing lingering acidity. A complex Chardonnay full of nuances and class.

Cellaring: Drink now or cellar until 2031

A rather stylish blended red from this cooler vintage. It’s an elegantly poised wine showing lovely generous aromatics of blackcurrant and fruity, raisiny characters. Gets some serious winemaking treatment, albeit very gentle, but still time-consuming for a wine at this price. Cellar 7 Years.
92/100 Ray Jordan WA Wine Guide 2022

Vinification Picked with a selectiv machine harvester in the early hours of the morning, the grapes are then tipped directly into a pneumatic press. The selectiv machine removes all petioles, stems, jacks and other unwanted MOG. Pressed at 600L/T to only capture the ‘heart’ of the juice, pressings are discarded and the juice is racked into 50% new and 50% 1-3 year old french oak after 3 hours of settling. Wild yeast are allowed to undertake the ferment with an average maximum ferment temperature of 26 degrees celsius. Weekly battonage post ferment for the first two months followed by bi weekly battonage for the remainder of the maturation (8 months) total maturation 10 months. Bottled using no animal products or tannins.

Viticulture: The vineyard is grown naturally using organic biological principals. Employing seaweed and fish emulsion foliar fertilisers plus elemental sulphur and copper sprays for disease prevention. Nothing is wasted, grape must is composted, mulched and mixed with manures then returned to the vineyard floor. Cover crops of clover, peas and rye grass are grown between the vines which provide nitrogen and green mulch. Canopy management is vital, hedging and leaf plucking are used to control exposure to sunlight and further our effort to deliver perfectly ripe, balanced grapes to the winery.

Vintage Rating 9/10 –.  After a wet winter, the region enjoyed an early start to the season, with warmer than average spring temperatures evolving into the perfect summer growing conditions. Low disease pressure, timely flowering of native Marri trees to keep the birds at bay and little to no rain meant that growers could literally “take their pick” when they wanted. Vintage 2020 in Margaret River was a real treat for viticulturists with the only downside of note being the lower than normal yields across all varieties, resulting in one of the smallest harvests in recent years. Yet here is the silver lining… the lower yields have resulted in exceptional fruit that is physiologically ripe and shows divine concentration of aromas and flavours. While the 2020 vintage from Margaret River will be in scarce supply, it will be a very special vintage to look out for.