Aotea Nelson Chardonnay 2015

Wine Analysis

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island Vineyard
Sugar at Harvest: 23.2°Brix
Date of Harvest Early April 2015
pH of Wine: 3.48
T.A of Wine: 7.1g/L
Residual Sugar of Wine: 1.12g/L
Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans: Yes

The Vineyard

The fruit for our Aotea Nelson Chardonnay is from our Rabbit Island vineyards which are situated on a wide river flat. The soil is gravelly sandy loam, which marks the sites of Maori kumara (sweet potato) beds prior to European settlement in the early 1800’s. The Maori transferred and spread fine gravel and sand over the land to provide suitable soils for their kumara plantings. Scrub was burned to give ash and charcoal, which increased soil fertility and characteristic topsoil. This fertility is now considerably reduced due to modern farming. The soils are however, very sandy and free draining. The water table is relatively high ensuring adequate underground water. These vineyards are about 1.5 kilometres from the sea, which helps moderate temperatures.

Winemakers Note

The ‘hen and chicken’ berries of the Mendoza clone of Chardonnay give full tropical flavours. The grapes for this Chardonnay were grown adjacent to the winery in our Rabbit Island vineyard blocks. Fruit was harvested and brought to the winery where it was immediately pressed and cooled for a 24 hour settling period. Following this the juice was racked and warmed before inoculation. Once the ferment was active it was gravity fed to
new, one and two year old French barriques. The wine completed primary fermentation in
oak before undergoing malolactic fermentation. During these fermentations the barrels
were hand stirred every two weeks to build palate weight and structure. Following this the wine was left sitting on yeast lees for a further 12 months before being racked from barrique and prepared for bottling.

Tasting Note

The 2015 Aotea Nelson Chardonnay is a rich and full wine. The wine has appealing warm
spicy oak notes alongside succulent apricot characters. The palate is generous with well
integrated French oak spice and full yeasty textured notes together with ripe tropical flavours. Fine tannins run though length of the wine leaving a generous finish.