2010 Whitehaven Chardonnay
Accolades
PURE SILVER - Bragato 2011
Tasting Note
Colour / Appearance:Deep straw/light gold, with a bright clarity. Aroma / Bouquet:Bright peach and mandarin fruit core with complex oak char, mealy and cream notes. Palate:A medium to full-bodied wine with a refreshing acidity and generous, seamless texture. The rich array of flavours offers complexity and intrigue. These flavours persist through to a clean, finely balanced finish. Cellaring:We recommend drinking our 2010 Chardonnay in the first three to four years after the vintage, but the wine has the structure and balance to allow continued development with careful cellaring. Food Match:Mediterranean food, pork or chicken pies and creamy mushroom pastas. Serve:Lightly chilled.
Wine Analysis
Alcohol:13.5%Residual Sugar:<2 g/L Titratable Acidity:5.1 g/L pH:3.51
Viticulture
Locality:TBA Climate:The early ripening season was cooler than average, resulting in a late flowering. Warm dry conditions over budburst and later in the season led to balanced yields,
clean fruit and exceptional flavours. Vine Management:Grown on the property of Bruce and Anne MacLauchlan, Watts Road, Rapaura. Our Chardonnay is sourced from the Mendoza clone. Vines are trained to two canes on a vertical trellis with balanced pruning, shoot thinning, tucking and trimming to achieve an open, healthy canopy.
Vinification
Winemaking:The fruit was either hand-picked and whole bunch pressed or machine picked in cool evening conditions. Pressings were kept separate to minimise phenolics.
Juice was lightly settled before being fermented with a selected yeast strain to aid development of the creamy mouth feel. Halfway through fermentation, the juice was
transferred to French oak puncheons of which 45% were new. Lees stirring was undertaken regularly during the 10 months of maturation to aid palate texture and
richness. Winemaker:Sam Smail & Diana Katardzhieva