We didn’t think that things could get much better after the 2021 season, but we were wrong. It was almost spooky:  average winter and early spring rains, a cool summer and gentle ripening conditions throughout the 2022 season. This ripening period was also dry, and we didn’t experience any heat spikes at all; everything ripened in order and with a break between the varieties. Veraison (the stage of grape development when the grapes change colour as they get nearer to harvest) was later than usual, and picking across all varieties was a little later than usual, too. Overall, 2022 was a terrific vintage, with super quality whites.

We pick at night when the grapes are cooler and bring them into the winery before dawn. how incredibly romantic! The grapes are pressed off their skins and pumped into barrel (new and French oak hogsheads – 500 litre barrels) to undergo a wild, natural ferment. We try our hardest not to let the wine go through MALO (MLF or malolactic fermentation) so that the wine retains its crisp natural acidity. Once ferment is finished the wine then spends about 6 months in oak before bottling.

• The Real Review

   

  Lifted aromas of nougat, white peach, sweet florals, grilled nuts and citrus. Full flavoured, rich and mouth-filling, quite plush, ripe stone fruit, nutty oak and soft, shapely acidity. Generously flavoured, easy drinking and delivers.

  90 points

• Halliday Wine Rating

   

  '...A generous chardonnay of considerable class, belying its hot-climate origins. Riffs on nougatine, creamed cashew and canned peach. The oak is sensitively applied, evincing a nudge of authority while letting further stone and tropical fruit allusions flow. The acidity, too, an honest representation of place: soft and effortless....'

  92 Points

  Ned Goodwin MW

• 2023
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