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Age of vines: 21 years
Harvested: 13/04/04
Ripeness: 22.7 Brix pH3.1 TA 9.2g/l
The destemmed and crushed fruit was pressed and settled in tank overnight. The next day the juice was racked into barrels (2/3 puncheons, 1/3 barrique) – all French oak of which 20% was new. All barrels were left alone until they started a wild natural fermentation at which point 2/3 of the barrels were seeded with cultured yeast, for more complexity.
The barrels were regularly lees stirred and topped over winter until next spring when they underwent a natural malolactic fermentation which dropped the TA from 9.2g/l to 7.8 g/l. Some of the barrels had a nice burnt match stick aroma which still shows in the wine and of which we are quite proud. The wine had a light fining and filtration in Feb 05 before being bottled.
Wine at bottling: 13.3% alc. pH 3.2, TA 7.8g/l
We consider the 2004 Chardonnay to be the best we have made
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