Astrolabe Province Marlborough Chardonnay 2022

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.

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

SERVING TEMPERATURE Cool room temperature.

Climate: An early budburst with warm weather through to a dry and sunny November. Rains in October and December set up the canopy for strong growth with some issues with fungal diseases. January was dry and helped reduce the mildew pressure. High February rain fall caused some botrytis issues while giving a helpful boost to the canopies. Berries sized-up with the available water, and the yields were enhanced. Although the vineyards were delicately poised regarding botrytis pressures, a dryish March and April allowed our fruit to attain targets for flavour and maturity in good condition.

Soils: Free-draining stony alluvium.

Harvest Date: Between the 22nd of March and the 1st of April, 2022.

Vine Management: Standard trellis with pruning to two canes and vertical shoot positioning. Vines are trimmed closely, well tucked, with minimal leaf plucking. Extensive fruit thinning enhances concentration of flavour.

WINEMAKING The fruit was hand-picked and whole bunch 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 9 months’ barrel maturation have added to the texture and complexity. This wine is unfined. Bottled 16th February, 2023.

The wine develops structure and body as it ages in 500 litre oak puncheons, where it undergoes malolactic fermentation, gathers lees complexity from aging on the lees and takes in flavours from the wood and its toast levels. I enjoy complementing the natural stonefruit and citrus flavours of our chardonnay grapes by building aromatic complexity and texture during winemaking to craft an elegant, dry and mouth-filling wine. Aged for 10 months in French oak: medium toast, tight grain, 2/3 year air dried, centre of France, 500L puncheons.