Awards and Accolades

2016 Vintage: 92 Points - James Halliday, Wine Companion
"This is a tightly coiled, cool climate chardonnay that is still elemental in its primary stone fruit and citrus flavours, framed by unresolved vanillin oak. Some leesy creaminess imparts a lemon pie tang to the mid-palate while the acidity, vibrant and verging on tensile, imbues verve and an energetic nerve. A bit edgy, I'd like to see this in five-years, however, once the parts settle into a balanced whole."

From the Winery

Sourced entirely from our vineyards in the Pipers Brook region of northeastern Tasmania, the Pipers Brook Estate Chardonnay has fresh cool climate acidity, rich classic fruit charm in a well-balanced style. This wine was produced from our well-established low cropping vines overlooking Bass Strait. This coastal influence provides the vines natural vigor control and balance.

The Pipers Brook region typically produces growing conditions that enable chardonnay to display all the classic hallmarks of the variety. The acid remains crisp and refreshing, whilst providing additional structure to a long mineral tight finish. The grapes were grown on a mixture of ferrosol (red volcanic) soils from the Pipers Brook region and vertosols (black cracking clays) from the Tamar Valley. Both soil types have excellent water holding capacity, offering a steady supply of moisture and nourishment to the vines throughout the growing season. The vines are meticulously hand-tended and grown on Vertical Shoot Positioned trellis. These blocks, located on the Pipers Brook Vineyard, are all over fifteen years of age and are high-density plantings with low cropping vines. The vines are completely non-irrigated and dry grown.

After transport to the winery at Pipers Brook, the grapes were gently crushed and cooled, with some parcels being basket pressed whilst the majority were pressed in our pneumatic bag presses. The juice is all protectively handled to help retain the natural steely fruit characters and to keep the acid profile bright and intense against its fruit structure. The individual batches are clean racked then transferred to French oak barrels where they remained until the completion of primary fermentation, with only a small percentage of the wine undergoing partial secondary fermentation. Judicious (10-15 %) use of new oak has avoided excessive oak tannins and only some minor barrel stirring was practiced throughout to integrate and provide richness to the palate.