Gibbston Valley China Terrace Single Vineyard Central Otago Chardonnay 2022

Gibbston Valley China Terrace Single Vineyard Central Otago Chardonnay 2022French oak White florals Saline thread Fresh & clean "The GV team are stoked to be the winners of the Organic Winery of the Year. We are proud to be carrying the baton for Central Otago; an area where so many wineries are dedicated to producing organic and biodynamic wine. Hats off to all the organic wine producers who continue to care about the way they go about producing a bottle of wine; It's the norm for us now; all our own vineyards are BioGro

• French oak
• White florals
• Saline thread
• Fresh & clean

"The GV team are stoked to be the winners of the Organic Winery of the Year. We are proud to be carrying the baton for Central Otago; an area where so many wineries are dedicated to producing organic and biodynamic wine. Hats off to all the organic wine producers who continue to care about the way they go about producing a bottle of wine; It's the norm for us now; all our own vineyards are BioGro certified; our last lease vineyard will be fully certified by 2024. It’s a great show because it promotes wines from producers who care about the way they produce wine, their land and their environment. Thank you to the many people who work hard during this rime; and continue to look, listen and observe"

Pale bright straw gold. White flowers on the nose, typical of Bendigo Chardonnay. On the palate, sweet pure chardonnay is offset by a saline thread. With its clean, fresh structure, the China Terrace Chardonnay will benefit from five years in the cellar, and will cellar comfortably for 10 years.

Planted in 2001, the China Terrace Vineyard is located in the Bendigo subregion. Gently sloped and north facing, it has 4 clones of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay planted over some 7 hectares. Being over 320m, it retains a coolness relative to Bendigo’s natural warmth. This, and the complex accumulation of loess, clay and schist in its soil, gives wines of fresh, bright complexity.

After an early October budburst, the vines pushed through some particularly cold early spring nights. Ample sunshine hours and rain helped establish even canopies and bunch sizes through settled November and December; with higher bunch and berry numbers than normal. It was another year for looking after canopies carefully; January 2022 was hot and dry; and whilst February brought cooler conditions. March was warm and dry; harvest came on time, with balanced acid levels in all varieties.

The China Terrace vineyard delivers remarkably pure Chardonnay year upon year. Our philosophy is to encourage even ripening of bunches, opening up the morning side of the vine completely; and allowing dappled exposure on the afternoon side. We pick early enough to promote fruit flavours in the citrus / peach / mineral spectrum. After hand picking, the fruit is very gently pressed to a yield of 550L/ tonne and sent to barrel for fermentation. Both primary fermentation and MLF (100%) are indigenous. The wine spends 11 months in barriques and puncheons; with 20% new oak being used (it loves Damy, Alliers, M+).