Winemakers Notes
Vintage 2018 was very challenging in Hawkes Bay. This wine is testament to the extraordinary skills of our vineyard staff. Faced with very challenging conditions, they worked tirelessly to ensure that, in 2018, we harvested some of the best fruit we have ever seen off our Limeworks Block. This wine is mainly machine harvested fruit, supplemented by a small hand-picked parcel. Post pressing and settling the juice was run off to barrel (20% new American) for fermentation and MLF. The MLFs moved very quickly in 2018 and post that, the wine stayed in barrel until February 2019. The wine was bottled in May 2019.
Tasting Notes
Colour; This vineyard always has a bit of colour: Pale gold in the glass at bottling, but will slowly deepen with time
Bouquet; Profound! A melange of vanilla, cream, sweet lemon, grapefruit, hazelnut, and subtle oak
Palate; Powerful! This is a big, rich Chardonnay. It has weight, sweet fruit, beautiful texture and length.
Cellaring
Already approachable, but will cellar happily into the medium term in a cool environment.
Food Matches
The oak ageing makes this wine an excellent match with full flavoured rich dishes, in particular poultry, pork, salmon and crayfish.
Suggested Wine List Description
A stylish Chardonnay, mouth-filling and smooth. Not heavy, but with great depth of flavour, it shows maturity balancing sweet citrus and grapefruit aromas with delicate oak and nut overtones. Everything lingers neatly on the finish.
