Focused and layered, this wine exhibits toasty savoury characters which are perfectly balanced with ripe tropical notes.
The palate is supple and textured combining ripe stone fruit, and integrated toasty oak with a long, elegant finish.
Our Hawke's Bay vineyards are characterised by moderate temperatures and free draining soils, perfect for producing high quality fruit.
Our Kereru Vineyard has a range of soils from silt loam through silty gravels, fine shingle, large stones, clay and even a thin layer of volcanic ash, laid by an ancient eruption of one of the central North Island volcanoes.
This Chardonnay is predominantly sourced from our Kereru vineyard in Mangatahi, with smaller portions from other Hawke's Bay vineyards.
The batches were kept separate and fermented with a range of barrels and tanks, temperatures and yeast strains to give complexity of aroma and mouth feel.
The fruit was gently picked and pressed to give fine fresh juices with a soft texture. Some batches went through Malolactic fermentation in barrel for added texture and complexity. After aging on full yeast lees with regular stirring the batches were blended and prepared for bottling.
This subtly oaky Chardonnay is best enjoyed with grilled crayfish and scallop dishes.
Crayfish and scallops.
You can't beat Crayfish if you're looking for the perfect pairing for our Reserve Chardonnay.
New World Wine Awards 2016
New World Wine Awards 2015
Quite a complex bouquet of seasoned and new oak laced with ripe apple, grapefruit pith and stone fruit aromas, some toasty wood scents and kitchen spice. Complex on the palate too with a mix of wood spice and toasty oak then stone fruit and tree fruit flavours, some citrus, medium+ acidity, youthful textures and moderate+ length finishing dry.
