THE WINE The essence of a unique Adelaide Hills Chardonnay vineyard in Kenton Valley. Partial wild yeast fermentation in French oak barriques creates a complex background of minerality overlayed by a bright fruit core of lemon curd and white nectarine. Elegant, complex, refined.
VITICULTURE The grapes are now all from the Kenton Creek vineyard owned by Abby and Ashley Barratt, and are I10V1 clone. Crops were smaller than 2021 which helped concentrate flavours, again aided by a long, cool but sunny ripening period. Picked on 19th March 2022.
WINEMAKING The fruit was picked at night, using a destemmer harvester which delivers a large proportion of clean, unbroken berries. It was not crushed but then tipped directly into the press. The juice was rough settled overnight and transferred to French oak barriques (25% new) where it was fermented, 50% with wild yeasts. After malolactic fermentation to increase complexity and texture, the wine remained on its yeast lees until blended and bottled in October 2022.
