CAPE MENTELLE - Chardonnay 2006 75cl Bottle
A relatively low yielding vintage, with a hot start bringing on an early harvest for the whites, followed by prolonged wet and cloudy conditions causing some initial concern for the reds. This is a wine of great intensity with fruit and oak both gloriously magnified. On the nose, the vibrant lemon and fuzzy peach aromas are underpinned by vanillin and nutty oak characters. The creamy, mealy notes of the natural yeast add interest and complexity. The palate is rich and creamy with cleansing acidity, a penetrating finish and flavours that hang around longer than a busker on a street corner! The fruit for this wine is sourced from three sites, with most coming from the McHenry Vineyard, which has a sheltered north-easterly aspect and deep gravel loam soils sloping down to the Margaret River. This low-yielding vineyard provides quality fruit that forms the backbone of the blend. Our Chapman Brook vineyard planted in 1993-4, is located about 20km south-east of Margaret River and is now a major contributor with its crisp, clean citrus flavoured fruit. The chardonnay grows on a north facing slope with well-drained grey gravel loam soils. The sandy loam soils of the Maiolo Vineyard, further north in the region, produce fruit contributing to the ripe, full-bodied characters of the wine. All vineyards are spur pruned and vertical shoot positioned to enhance sunlight exposure. A mild winter led to early budburst - but wintery, wet and windy conditions followed in spring. By November, the weather had warmed up and vineyard irrigation was required by late December. Vintage started early, due to the lower than average yields, caused in turn by the cold spring of 2002 affecting bud fruitfulness. Mild conditions prevailed until early March when it became very hot. All the whites were harvested by mid-March, when rain fell, providing some relief from the heat, and cool, cloudy but dry conditions lingered on, allowing us to get the rest of the reds in before another larger front passed over. Most of our reds were ripe and ready to harvest in the first week of April, and we were able to get everything harvested before the deluge. The Chapman vineyard was harvested from February 28th to March 4th and the McHenry ripened very quickly due to hot conditions and was picked on March 10th - a very hot day. Ripeness varied between 23 and 25.5 brix while the acidities ranged between 6.6 to 8.8 gram/litres. Yields from the Chapman and McHenry vineyards were a moderate 5.5 and 6.9 tonne/hectare. This year the blend was 41% from McHenry, 55% from Chapman and 4% from the Maiolo vineyard. The machine-harvested Maiolo fruit was crushed, must-chilled and pressed to stainless steel tanks for cold settling prior to racking off gross lees to another tank for inoculation with prise de mousse yeast, which produces clean, fruit driven wines. Two - three days later the fermenting juice was racked to barrels, 46% of which were new and the remainder one and two years old. The McHenry and half the Chapman fruit was elevated as whole bunches into our tank press where the juice was gently pressed into a holding tank. The juice was racked straight into barrel the following day for fermentation by indigenous yeast. Malolactic fermentation was encouraged in 10% of the blend, the balance was sulphured in winter. Occasional stirring and regular topping is carried out during the time in barrel. In December the contents of all barrels meeting our standards were blended and given a light bentonite fining before filtering and bottling in February 2004.
Price: £14.79
Merchant: TheDrinkShop
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