ATTRIBUTES
The wine has lovely aromas derived from yeast autolysis, with flint, pear and brioche characters. It is medium bodied, with great intensity and fresh flavours of citrus, stone fruit and melon. The barrel ageing has added complexity with creaminess and toasty characters, giving lovely length on the palate. With ageing the wine will develop more buttery, toasted characters. Drink now to 8 years.
WINEMAKING
The Chardonnay was machine picked in the early morning in late February 2021. The fruit was crushed and destemmed into a membrane press to separate the skins and seeds from the juice. Fermentation was commenced with a neutral dry yeast in stainless steel tanks, and then transferred to 70% new and 30% 1 year old French Oak Hogsheads for the remainder of fermentation. Post fermentation the chardonnay was lees stirred in barrel for 8 months. The barrels were then gently racked into a stainless steel tank, where it was stabilised, fined and filtered prior to bottling in November 2021. We allow time in bottle before releasing.
VINTAGE
The 2021 ripening season on the Eyre Peninsula was very mild, with a cooler than average summer. There was little summer and late spring rainfall but the mild temperatures allowed for a long even ripening period. The yields were average size, with great balance across the bunches. The 2021 vintage was the second vintage to be vinified in the newly built state of the art Winery and Cellar door facility which was just awarded the Best Building Excellence Award in the $2-5 million category at The Master Builders SA Awards.
VINEYARDS
Situated on the Teakle property in Port Lincoln, 2 kilometres from the foreshore, with 150 meters elevation. The soils are rich combination of sandy loam topsoil overlying a friable red-brown clay loam subsoil. The moderately warm summer temperatures and maritime breeze allow perfect ripening conditions in the vineyard. The long sunshine hour days encourage even ripening of the grapes, while the gentle breeze helps cool the bunches, retaining the beautiful natural acidity.