Chardonnay Bannockburn 2023

Felton Road, tasting note (feltonroad.com – produktside feltonroad.com, hentet 2026-10-19): 2023 Felton Road Chardonnay Bannockburn – område: Bannockburn (Central Otago); drue: Chardonnay. Producentens noter (engelsk): Tasting note: Pure grapefruit zest, citrus, stonefruit kernel, a hint of roasted nuts, all bound in enlivening acid. The satisfying palate weight carries the acid completely without effort; it just shrugs it off. Very clean, already showing some length, which will no doubt build gracefully. A pleasing absence of oak notes…in fact a pleasing absence of everything but essence of Chardonnay. A definite candidate for benchmark. Vineyard & viticulture: Walter; Felton Road farms four properties totalling 34 ha in the Bannockburn sub-region of Central Otago. Chardonnay is mostly grown on the Elms vineyard in Blocks 2, 6, 8 & 9, with approximately 10% coming from Cornish Point vineyard. There are a range of altitudes and aspects with the soils mostly deep schist gravels. Meticulous summer management of a single vertical shoot positioned (VSP) canopy ensures even and early fruit maturity. Shoot thinning, shoot positioning, leaf plucking, bunch thinning and harvest are all carried out by hand to ensure optimum quality fruit. Cover crops are planted between rows to assist in vine balance and to improve soil health and general biodiversity. Vinification: Various clones of Chardonnay (Mendoza, B95, B548) were carefully hand harvested from Cornish Point and The Elms vineyards. The grapes were whole bunch pressed with the juice flowing to barrel by gravity after overnight settling. Fermentation in French oak (mostly well-seasoned barrels with just 10% new) with indigenous yeasts has produced a wine with considerable complexity. A long and complete indigenous malolactic fermentation with only periodic stirring of the lees (Batonnage), combined with 11 months on full lees; has softened the acid for a rich and complex mouthfeel. In accordance with our noninterventionalist approach to winemaking, this wine was not fined or filtered after spending 13 months total in barrel.