This is a rich style of Chardonnay with the accent on strong fruit flavours. Ripe melon, nectarine and summer peach aromas abound with oak hints of cedar and spice and a long, full, yet soft finish. ideal matched with creamy pasta and white meat dishes. It is also delicious with seafood.

Vineyard
This Chardonnay is a mix of the Mendoza clone and Clone15 from the Bridge Pa and Crownthorpe areas in the Hawke’s Bay. Free-draining stony silty loams are the predominate soil type in this area. The crop was kept low and well exposed to ensure good even ripening and flavour development.

Winemaking
This Chardonnay was cool fermented with both aromatic and Burgundy style yeasts in barrels and stainless steel tanks. Once fermentation was completed, the wine was left for an extended period on yeast lees to promote textural qualities and mouthfeel. A portion of the wine went through Malolactic fermentation to soften acidity and add warm buttery notes.The wine exhibits pineapple and grapefruit flavours with a rich mealy texture.

Commercial description.

In exceptional years our winemakers carefully select the four best barrels of our finest Pinot Noir. Every bottle is one of fewer than 1200 bottles in existence.

Four Barrels Pinot Noir displays generous plum, cherry and ripe berry fruit aromas with a hint of soft spice. The palate is rich and showing layers of silky-smooth dark berry flavours underpinned by subtle notes of dry ‘Provencal’ herbs. A beautifully balanced elegant, lush wine with a lingering finish.

Form Jules Taylor...

Chardonnay is one of the unsung heroes of Marlborough but also a wine that can divide the room! Jules? take on this variety is a far cry from the big buttery Chardonnay-bombs from the 1990s. Instead Jules prefers a wine with delicate freshness and attractive fruit flavours that express the vineyards in which they were grown. With only 10% new oak and a partial malolactic ferment, this elegant wine that will convert even the most die-hard chardonnay-basher!

Matahiwi winery's South Series refers to wines made from its most southernmost vineyards; in the Wairarapa where cooler nights result in crisper wines. This full bodied Chardonnay is a great expression of those two factors, balanced by creamy mouth texture and a touch of hazelnut intermingled with oatmeal and other complex flavours. Stunning value too. 

Chardonnay with all the bells and fresh citrusy flavour notes adding depth and balance to the smooth creamy notes. Here's a wine that shows how exceptionally well Chardonnay grows in Marlborough. 

While California's Napa Valley is best known for its wine, it has become home to two distilleries in recent years. One of these is Loch & Union Distilling. Founded by Colin Baker and Chris Andrews, the centerpiece of their operation is a custom German-built set of stills. 

Loch & Union Barreled Gin is a limited barrel series celebrating the marriage between spirit, botanical, and oak. This unique spirit has a weighted creamy texture and is met with warm baking spices. Notes of butter, brown sugar, and caramel linger on the finish.

750mL | 43%ABV

THE DRINKING
With hand-picked Chardonnay grapes in late summer, this Blanc de Blancs is a rustic and unfussy wine with a foamy mousse and biscuit and freshly baked bread aromas. It’s refreshing, fruity and perky on the palate with layers of pear, cherry and orange zest. To be enjoyed during the summer months, well chilled to quell that dissolved CO2. Unfiltered and unfined, this is a charming lo-fi natural wine.

THE GROWING
We will always remember 2021 as the perfect vintage for our dry farmed vines; as though I had direct dial to Hughie the weather god, we were blessed with decent dollops of rain at the optimum times during the growing season, much appreciated as our vines were recovering from the drought conditions of 2020. The one brix a week rule book was thrown out the window in 2021 and we had to be on our toes, ready to pick at a moment's notice, as the brix (sugar levels) were rising on a daily basis.

THE MAKING
Hand-picked single clone 95 Chardonnay grapes from our 'Puriri' block were whole bunch pressed and the juice put into a stainless-steel tank where it was cold settled for 24 hours then racked into its fermentation tank. No yeast or additions were made, apart from some organic yeast nutrient, to help to complete the wild ferment. The decision when to bottle is always a challenging one, too much unfermented sugars and you have a too fizzy bottle rocket in your hands, too little sugars and you have all sausage without the sizzle. Much like the picking decision, I had to base my bottling decision on experience, taste and sugar levels. The ferment tank was chilled down to 2 degrees C for 48 hours then lifted onto my trailer, driven back to our vineyard and gravity bottled at Zeelandt Brewery by the same crew who picked the grapes.

TECHNICAL NOTES
PICKING DATE: 4 March 2021
pH: 3.38
ACIDITY: 5.47
RS: 1.34
BOTTLING: 7 April 2021
F(SO2): 8.8T
(SO2): 24