FIVE STAR Winery: "Best in Padthaway" - James Halliday

Here's a bonny little Chardonnay made in dry and medium-bodied in style, with only light oak usage, so you have less burn toast characters and more roasted cashews. The acidity has been allowed to shine through, offering more fruit and ensuring its not an uneven 'butterball' that leaves that horrid flabbiness in your mouth.

Pale straw in colour. Concentrated citrus and white peach fruit flavours are complimented by delicate yeast and subtle spice aromas. The palate is clean and fresh with vibrant fruit flavours, mineral characters and a good lingering finish.

Fruit was harvested in the cool of the night and gently pressed. The juice was fermented in French oak barrels (35% new, 65% aged). Various components underwent: a wild ferment, malolactic fermentation and extended lees contact to give the wine further complexity and flavour. Individual parcels were selected and blended, then filtered to produce this Chardonnay without compromising the purity of the fruit in both flavour and aroma.

2012 was a very good season with predominantly mild, dry days. Yields were generally low and this did result in some excellent parcels of fruit being harvested. Vine-balance was carefully monitored, resulting in fruit that demonstrates the vibrancy and fruit-derived characters that we strive for in our wines. By all accounts it was a textbook vintage.