Murdoch Hill Chardonnay 2019 (750ml)

100% Chardonnay
ABV 13%
GI: Adelaide Hills (Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia)
Site(s): Estate vineyard, plus sites in Lobethal District and Piccadilly Valley

Tasting Notes
This modern refined style of chardonnay exhibits all the typical characters of the Adelaide Hills: slight reduction, plump fruit, and a strong acid line. Notes of white peach, finger lime (a pungent native citrus), blanched Atherton almond (a Queensland delicacy), and wet stone. Careful lees work and oak selection give this wine complexity and structural support.

Vintage Notes
2019 gave little but concentrated clean fruit. With average spring rainfall and a very dry summer, several heat-waves near harvest resulted in early picking. Importantly, cold nights through out February and March retained brightness to the fruit profile and high natural acidity.

Vineyard Notes
The Murdoch Hill vineyard is situated in the cool climate Adelaide Hills, near the township of Oakbank, in an undulating valley 420m in elevation. The soil structure is predominately sandy loam over medium clay subsoil’s, with varying levels of ironstone, quartz and schist rock. These vines are cane pruned with vertical shoot positioning (VSP) with extensive shoot thinning, canopy trimming and bunch thinning to control the yield. Additional vineyards were selected for this wine, including ones from the Lobethal District and the Piccadilly Valley. Each small parcel provides a different profile giving an overall complex wine, clonal material included Bernard clones 76, 96 with parcels from I10V1 and sparkling clone G9V7.

Winemaking
The fruit was hand-picked then kept in cold storage at two degrees for several days. The fruit was whole bunch and whole berry pressed straight to barrel with a mix of barriques, puncheons and foudre, with 15% new oak. The juice was fermented naturally with a small selection seeing partial malolactic fermentation.

Tech Sheet