2007 Brightside Nelson Unoaked Chardonnay
Winemaking notes
The fruit for this wine was sourced from a parcel of clone 15 Chardonnay on the Estate vineyard. The ripening period of the 2007 vintage was warm and dry allowing the fruit to reach good ripeness with naturally soft acidity levels, while remaining disease free. It was 100% hand picked with an average harvest Brix of 25ª.
Crushing and pressing was reductive, avoiding juice oxidation, and the partially clarified juice cool fermented in stainless steel to retain primary fruit characters. This wine is made in a style with very little winemaking influence to allow the varietal characters of ripe Chardonnay grapes to be displayed.
Several months post fermentation lees contact and stirring was allowed to give additional weight to the wine, but there was neither oak contact nor malolactic fermentation. It was given a light skim milk fining before filtration and bottling in September 2007.
Wine analysis
Residual sugar 2 g/l
Titratable acidity 6.9 g/l
Alcohol 14.4%
Tasting notes
Lovely purity of Chardonnay fruit is displayed in this unoaked style with nectarine and peaches, marzipan and rich butter pastry characters on the nose. Stonefruit continues through to the palate joined by ripe citrus then spicy star anise and ground ginger on the finish. The structure is tight at this early stage but shows generosity and good concentration with a creamy citrus oil texture.
