Astrolabe Province Chardonnay 2016

Colour/Appearance Mid straw-gold. Aroma/Bouquet Full ripe melon and dried stone fruits and fig, light nut meal and brûlée notes, with some light leesiness. Palate A wine of gentle creaminess and elegant texture, with tropical and stonefruit flavours, pleasing weight and long, dry finish.

The Astrolabe Province Marlborough Chardonnay is made from grapes grown at Astrolabe Farm Vineyard in the lower Wairau Valley and Wrekin Vineyard in the Southern Valleys. We hand-pick the grapes and whole-cluster press to reduce phenolic structure and allow attractive grape solids fermentation characters to come through. The wine is then aged in French-oak barrels, lees-stirred and allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation to give structure, body and complexity. I enjoy complementing the natural stonefruit and citrus flavours of our Chardonnay grapes by building aromatic complexity and texture during winemaking to craft an elegant, dry and mouthfilling wine.