Straw, white gold hue with slight haze. Aromas of white peach, yuzu, black current leaf and thyme. The palate is powerful and moorish with a saline persistent finish. Flavours of beechwood, blood orange, hazelnut, and crisp apple.
This is an unfiltered wine with small amounts of sediment. Please allow the bottle to stand and settle before pouring. Decanting will allow maximum expression of aroma and purity of fruit to emerge.
Drink now to 2034
Vineyard
This Black Estate Home Bottom Block Chardonnay was grown on our 3.8 hectare vineyard located 6 kilometers North East of the Waipara Junction, in the Omihi sub-district of Waipara Valley, North Canterbury. This is a north facing sedimentary clay fan on a gentle hill side slope. The soils are mainly Awapuni clay with calcium carbonate deposits. The un-grafted Mendoza Chardonnay vines were planted in 1994 at a vine density of 1841 vines per hectare. The Home Vineyard is fully certified organic with BioGro and Biodynamic with Demeter.
Season
Winter and early spring rainfalls meant vines started the growing season in spring with adequate soil moisture. Some cool night time temperatures in September kept us on frost alert but we were able to avoid any frost damage. Timing of bud burst and flowering ran seven to ten days later than previous seasons but in line the the long term average. Buds burst occurred at the Home Block around the Spring equinox. Shoot growth was even across the block and kept the field team busy with hand weeding, shoot thinning, and then wire lifting. Post flowering we experienced higher humidity levels than normal which averaged 82% through the normally dry December, January, and February months. Thorough leaf removal around the fruit zone was undertaken through the blocks and spray intervals were tightened up to manage the potentially high disease pressure from powdery mildew. Harvest commenced in mid March where our field team carefully hand harvest and sorted each bunch of fruit to ensure the best possible flavours of the season could be captured. We are relieved and happy to savour every wine from this unique and challenging season.
Harvest
Hand harvested on March 18 and 20 2023
5.6 Tons Yield = 0.8 kg/vine 1.47T/ha Brix 22.8 TA 9.4g/ L pH 3.08
Fermentation
Hand harvested grapes were whole bunch pressed over a 4 hour press cycle. The juice was settled for 48 spurs, then racked to barrel. No additions were made except vineyard derived yeast propagated from a vineyard starter from the Home vineyard. Juice was fermented in 500L tight grained French casks (4 year old). The wine matured on fermentation lees and went through full malo-lactic fermentation in early spring. Blended to tank after 12 months allowed to settle on fine lees for 3 months then bottled. No fining or filtration. Contains sulphites. 50ppm Sulphur Dioxide added at bottling.
Bottled
Bottled in one lot under screw cap on July 8 2024. 100 Magnums were bottled on July 12 2024.
R.S 1.1 g/L TA 7.6 g/L pH 3.31 Dry extract 24.1 g/L Alcohol 14.0% Total SO2 51ppm
