Reserve Chardonnay

We have been producing a barrel fermented "Reserve Chardonnay", since 2002. It has been a highly awarded and most successful style that can be cellared with great confidence. While often tight and mealy in its youth, these wines blossom beautifully with time in bottle and we regard them as great food wines. Over the past 2 years alone, our Reserve Chardonnay has won nearly 20 medals in wine shows around the world, including the Trophy d'Excellence at Citadelles du Vin, and Gold Medals at International Wine Challenges in UK and Japan. In December 2003, the UK Financial Times rated this wine one of the Top 25 Burgundy-style/Aromatic Wines of the World. It is served in many famous restaurants around the world, including the Fat Duck in England, rated recently the world's top restaurant.

Overall style: A medium-full bodied Chardonnay with well integrated oak, great complexity from partial malo-lactic fermentation and lees aging, with a long dry citrus finish. A wine to match food, especially white meats and pasta.
Making: Hand harvested at very low yields (we will go through the vineyard many times to ensure that only perfect grapes are picked for the winery), whole bunch pressed in the winery, barrel fermented using wild yeasts, with about a 50% secondary (malo-lactic) fermentation, matured in barrels for a year, with regular lees stirring. This wine is made in up to 12 different batches (from different grape blocks) and then finally re-blended at the end.
Grape Clones: Mendoza, UCD 15 on rootstock: Schwartzman, 101-14
Ageability: The high alcohol, good fruit aromatics and oaking of this wine means that it will cellar for many years (we expect 7-10 years).
Tastes/Aromas: These wines are typically powerful, complex Chardonnays with great aromatic concentration and length. Their citrus and mealy notes are balanced by a rich, creamy palate and subtle oak flavour. It is anticipated that these wines will cellar well for 5 or more years. The wines are dry with residual sugars less than 2g/L.