Chardonnay 2007

Tasting notes
Classic yet understated Hawkes Bay Chardonnay. The texture of the palate is sublime with hints of tropical fruits and passionfruit, complemented by the restrained use of oak. Paritua Chardonnay is made to be an elegant, refined expression of the varietal. Enjoy as an aperitif or match with all types of seafood or poultry. This wine will age gracefully for up to five years.

Viticulture
Chardonnay is grown along the Paritua Stream on the red metal soils of the Ngatarawa Triangle and clones 15 and 95 are planted in the vineyard. Premium parcels of both clones are reserved for Paritua Chardonnay. The flavour profile of Chardonnay is highly influenced by sun exposure and cropping levels, so these areas are manually leaf plucked and bunched thinned to create pristine growing conditions. For harvest the objective is to achieve ripeness and good acidity without elevated sugars.

Winemaking
All fruit is hand harvested and whole bunch pressed at the winery. After a short period of settling, the juice is transferred to barrel for fermentation. Half of the juice is inoculated with selected yeasts, whilst the other half undergoes natural fermentation to create complexity and depth. The fermenting barrels are held in a cool environment to keep temperatures under 18°C (64°F). The resulting wine is racked post-ferment and a yeast lees selection is made to add back during weekly lees stirring. 60% new oak barriques are used with the remainder being older French oak. Depending on fruit character at harvest, a malolactic conversion of up to 60% takes place on this wine (30% ‘malo’ for the 2007 vintage). After nine months in barrel the wine was lightly fined, filtered and bottled under Stelvin Lux screwcap.

Harvest: 2007
207 cases made
14% alcohol/volume
TA: 5.4 grams/litre
pH: 3.48