2023 Chardonnay Single Barrel
A single row of Chardonnay provided two harvest opportunities with grapes picked selectively from sides of the row exposed to the morning and afternoon sunshine.
The grapes are crushed and pressed in a basket press, each harvest providing two cuvées of free-run and lightly-pressed juice.
This 2023 Single Barrel vintage is the free-run cuvée from the grapes picked on the afternoon-sunshine exposed side of the row.
Barrel-fermented and matured in the same, single 228L aged French oak barrel for 19 months.
Vinified through gravity-flow. Bottled by hand, un-fined and un-filtered.
Only 285 bottles were produced.
Analyses
Alcohol % v/v = 14.7 %
Residual Sugar = 1.3 g/L
Titratable Acidity = 5.8 g/L
pH = 3.34
Vigneron's Notes
Training the vines by hand provides the opportunity to guide the canopy to provide more shade to the afternoon-sunshine exposed bunches, while still maintaining adequate air-flow. This side of the row is exposed to a hotter, more intense afternoon radiation but the covering of leaves slows ripening down, enabling a smoother phenolic production in the skins.
These grapes still retain their natural acidity from the cooler evening temperatures on the Southern slopes of the valley.