Domain Road Chardonnay 2021

The Wine:

Our Chardonnay vines grow in three blocks on our Defiance vineyard chosen for the quality of soils and underlying gravels. Our Chardonnay clones (809, 1066 and 548) are the three great clones used by the French Grand Crus of Corton-Charlemagne - considered to represent some of the finest white burgundies. These three clones are designed for blending, with 548 and 1066 producing full bodied wines with complex aromas, the addition of 5 - 10% of 809 provides muscat aromas and a fine well balanced structure. 

The grapes were hand harvested on the 9th, 11th & 12th April 2020 from our Defiance vineyard and were whole bunch pressed to tank before being transferred to French oak barriques to undergo barrel fermentation.  Aged in French oak barriques (23% new oak) for 9 months the wine was regularly lees stirred with 100% completing malolactic fermentation.

Our Chardonnay is dry in style, and pale lemon with clear hues in colour.  The nose has fragrant aromas of nectarine, peach, melon, potpourri, sweet spice, brioche and honeysuckle. Rich and mouth filling the succulent palate is dry with ripe sweet peach, biscuit, toffee, char and good minerality. A complex wine with a long sweet stone fruit finish.

"Fantastic on the palate with a dance between flavour and texture, youthful and fresh with barrel spice and a gun-flint then fruit flavour that reflect the bouquet. Fine wood tannins, complex, lengthy and delicious." Cameron Douglas 

The Gold Rush Days
The now tiny settlement of Bannockburn was an important and bustling town during the gold rush of the 1860s. Domain Road Vineyard overlooks an historic area known as ‘The Sluicings’ (photo above) where stunning land formations are a legacy of the gold mining activity. This area can be explored either on foot or mountain bike, following the paths through the Department of Conservation reserve.

On the section of the vineyard land that was once mined for gold, the Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling grapes are thriving, while the Pinot Noir grows on land undisturbed by gold mining activity.  The historic rammed-earth gold miner’s cottage built during the 1880s has been restored and improved in recent years, returning it to a warm and comfortable family home.