Winemakers Collection Nelson Barrique Fermented Chardonnay 2024 - Three Bottle Gift Box

94 Points (5 Stars) - Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, June 2025

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island vineyard
Date of Harvest: mid March 2024
pH of Wine: 3.50
T.A of Wine: 5.3g/L
Residual Sugar of Wine: 1.3g/L
Alcohol: 13.5%
Suitable for Vegetarians and Vegans: Yes

This single vineyard Chardonnay comes from our Rabbit Island vineyard. This vineyard is situated on a wide river flat, about 1.5km from the sea, which helps moderate temperatures. The soil is gravelly sandy loam, which marks the sites of Māori kūmara (sweet potato) beds prior to European settlement in the early 1800s. The Māori transferred and spread fine gravel and sand over the land to provide suitable soils for their kūmara 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.

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 alcohol fermentation before undergoing malolactic fermentation. During these alcoholic fermentations the barrels were hand-stirred periodically to build palate weight and structure. Following this the wine was left sitting on its yeast lees for a further 12 months before being racked from barrique and prepared for bottling in May 2025.

2024 was simply an outstanding vintage in Nelson - in fact Hermann Seifried has commented that it is perhaps the very best vintage of his 49 seasons in the top of the south! That from a character not known for exaggeration or embellishments. A dry settled growing season meant fruit was harvested in squeaky clean condition, with perfect ripeness and flavours.