Church Road TOM Hawke's Bay Chardonnay 2021

Church Road TOM Hawke's Bay Chardonnay 2021"This is the pinnacle of Church Road's Hawke's Bay Chardonnays as its price conveys. The classy, very harmonious 2021 vintage (5*) was grown entirely in the Tuki Tuki Valley, including fruit from the company's Tuki Tuki Vineyard (72 per cent of the blend) and the slightly warmer Terraces Vineyard, at the foot of the Havelock Hills (28 per cent). Hand picked, it was fermented and matured for 11 months on its full yeast lees in French oak barriques (22

"This is the pinnacle of Church Road's Hawke's Bay Chardonnays – as its price conveys. The classy, very harmonious 2021 vintage (5*) was grown entirely in the Tuki Tuki Valley, including fruit from the company's Tuki Tuki Vineyard (72 per cent of the blend) and the slightly warmer Terraces Vineyard, at the foot of the Havelock Hills (28 per cent). Hand-picked, it was fermented and matured for 11 months on its full yeast lees in French oak barriques (22 per cent new). Bright, light yellow/green, it has a highly fragrant bouquet, rich, complex and slightly smoky. Full-bodied, it is deep and finely poised, with concentrated, ripe stonefruit flavours, toasty, mealy and smoky notes adding notable complexity, lively acidity and a rounded, lasting finish. An energetic, vibrant wine with obvious potential, it's already delicious, but well worth cellaring to mid-2024+" Michael Cooper, Michael Cooper Buyers Guide, Nov 2022

"Really fantastic bouquet, taut and youthful with crystal clear scents of just picked and baked peach, ripe grapefruit and French oak suggesting new wood, raw cashew nut and baked apple, a whisper of caramel then toasty brown spices. Lovely weight and intensity with power and precision, textures, and flavours reflective of the bouquet. Taut and dry, fine tannins, saline salivating acidity, layers of gunflint and grapefruit, very youthful with a long finish. Cellar or not, drink now or in 3 years, this wine is delicious. Best drinking from early 2024 through 2029" Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier, Oct 2022

"Taut, peppery chardonnay with grapefruit, saline/oyster shell, hazelnut, toast and nutty oak flavours. This is a formidable wine, rather closed at the moment but with the potential to develop with further bottle age" Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review, Oct 2022

The 2021 Tom Chardonnay is a complex wine of great density. Aromas of fragrant citrus and riper stone fruit notes are overlaid with complexities of roasted hazelnut, warm pastry, with a wisp of struck flint smokiness. The palate is full bodied, yet finely structured, carried by a seam of fresh acidity and a slate like mineral edge that combine to give a sense of reigned in power delivered with focus and drive. With careful cellaring we expect this wine to continue to mature gracefully for 6 years or more from vintage date. With age, the wine will develop more complex, savoury nuttiness and will gain breadth and richness on the palate.

The outstanding 2021 vintage in Hawke’s Bay will be remembered as a true classic. Exceptionally warm and dry, extended drought conditions persisted over the summer and through the entirety of the critical autumn harvest period, allowing all fruit to be harvested in optimum condition. By mid-February, the crop was tasting unseasonably ripe despite sugar levels still being relatively modest and we made the call to begin our earliest ever Chardonnay harvest, to ensure we retained good freshness and acidity. This has resulted in wines of power, fragrance, line and drive. The vines were trained to two cane VSP. We employed extensive shoot and fruit thinning where required, along with bunch positioning, declumping, close canopy trimming and around 70% removal of leaf through the fruit zone, to ensure a balanced, evenly spaced and well exposed crop. Soil moisture was monitored regularly to regulate a deficit drip irrigation programme. Just enough water is provided to keep the vines in a functioning yet low vigour state that promotes optimal ripening and concentration. Clones: 15 (72%), 1066 (22%), 548 (6%).

Hand-harvested and hand sorted, the fruit was gently whole bunch pressed directly to French oak barriques without any clarification or additions. Wild primary and malolactic fermentation ensued, and has delivered an extra degree of complexity, textural interest and provided an excellent natural acid balance. Oak was predominantly third and second fill. 22% new oak was also used to further enhance the depth of the wine without dominating the fruit. The wine was matured on full yeast lees in barrel for 11 months with only occasional yeast lees stirring. The final blend is a barrel selection from our very best parcels of Chardonnay. Targeting wines from the very first few barrels off each press load, this representing an extremely low juice yield of around 300 L/ton. This early portion of the free run juice produces fine textured Chardonnay with great structural linearity and excellent aging potential. To avoid any unnecessary stripping effect, the wine was left unfined and then lightly coarse filtered for clarity prior to bottling. No sterile filtration was used.