2011 Auntsfield Estate Chardonnay Single Vineyard Marlborough

Auntsfield Estate produces Chardonnay with finesse, restraint, honed focus and a textured mineral structure. The distinctive characteristics of ripeness, texture and minerality – qualities unique to the ancient Greywacke rock and Loess clay soils found on the property - are certainly apparent. Only the best fruit is hand-picked and hand-sorted into small picking bins where fermentation naturally starts in the vineyard. The resulting wine shows a real sense of place highlighting the mineral structure of the old clay soils of the vineyard.

The 2011 season was characterized by a cold spring and a long growing season which resulted in low crops of loose open bunches. Rain in late spring gave the vines great strength and capacity to ripen this fruit. A long cool autumn allowed the team to pick the very clean looking bunches at optimum ripeness levels.

The fruit for this wine was hand harvested and whole bunch pressed, allowing clean and intensely flavored juice to be crushed from the grape. The juice was fermented in French oak barriques followed by extended barrel aging on yeast lees. Maturation allowed the oak flavors to gently integrate with the fruit and yeast lees characters and develop increased richness and complexity in the wine.

Intense and complex, this wine displays aromas of nectarine, apricot and mandarin peel integrated with vanilla pod and hazelnut aromas from the French oak influence. The palate immediately shows ripe stone fruit flavors of nectarine, peach and dried apricot, integrated with a flinty minerality and subtle French oak influence giving hints of roasted hazelnut. A tight, well structured palate with underlying minerality gives the wine seamless length and complexity.

    Region: Southern Valleys of Marlborough

    Varietal: 100% Chardonnay

    Vintage: 2011

    Vineyard: Auntsfield Estate

    Vine Age: 15 years old

    Yield: 2.1 tons per acre

    Soil Type: Loess Clay over Greywacke Rock

    TA: 7.3 g/L

    pH: 3.17

    Alcohol: 14%

    Oak: 12 months in French barrique (20% new)

    Production: 700 cases