Escarpment Chardonnay 2022

Lifted flowers, white peach and wet stone leap out of the glass. Notes of gunflint and citrus meld to add complexity and fragrance. On the palate the wine is focused and streamlined, with a core of concentrated fruit built around a seam of natural acidity. Partial malolactic fermentation and barrel maturation help to give the wine both breadth and length. It is a wine that is built around elegance and restraint, offering focus and persistence. An accurate reflection of the district’s unique terroir, it will evolve in bottle over the next 5 to 7 years.

WINEMAKERS NOTES

A cooler vintage of elegance and grace, that has given us a lovely restrained Chardonnay of focus and texture. 100% Martinborough fruit, from the famous alluvial terrace and made from grapes grown on our own estate along with select growers. The fruit was handled with great care to help retain balance and freshness. Whole bunch pressed and fermented in French oak puncheons using indigenous yeast, to enhance texture and complexity. After fermentation the wine was aged in barrel for 11 months with 20% new, creating a wine with ripe stone fruit characters and a flinty mineral backbone. It is a wine that is both accessible in its youth but will also age gracefully for several years.