Kidnapper Cliffs Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2018

Kidnapper Cliffs Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2018French oak Lemon curd Grapefruit Fresh acidity "An outstanding offering; the immensely complex bouquet shows nectarine, grapefruit, vanillin oak and oatmeal characters with a seductive flinty overtone. It's brilliantly concentrated and persistent on the palate, displaying creamy texture and bright acidity, finishing wonderfully long and expansive. At its best: now to 2025" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Sep 2020 This is a full bodied yet elegant style of Hawkes

• French oak
• Lemon curd
• Grapefruit
• Fresh acidity

"An outstanding offering; the immensely complex bouquet shows nectarine, grapefruit, vanillin oak and oatmeal characters with a seductive flinty overtone. It's brilliantly concentrated and persistent on the palate, displaying creamy texture and bright acidity, finishing wonderfully long and expansive. At its best: now to 2025" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Sep 2020

This is a full-bodied yet elegant style of Hawkes Bay Chardonnay exhibiting notes of grapefruit, lemon curd and stone fruit characters with underlying flinty complexity. Rich and textural in the mouth, the wine has a fresh acidity offsetting the toasty oak which all contribute to a generous yet refined style of Chardonnay. Cellaring is recommended but the wine can equally be enjoyed in its youth. Drink 2020 – 2025+

This wine is blended from two different clones of Chardonnay: Mendoza and 95, grown on the Te Awa Vineyard in Hawke’s Bay. The Mendoza is dry-farmed and the Cl95 is managed organically. The Estate straddles the edge of the Gimblett Gravels and Bridge Pa Triangle subregions. The Kidnapper Cliffs Chardonnay is grown predominantly on the silty Bridge Pa soils. This diverse soil profile combined with the two different clones produces a Chardonnay that is both layered and complex, with varying degrees of ripeness and fruit flavour contributing to the final blend.

The individual vineyard parcels were hand-picked and then made the short trip to the winery where they were whole bunch pressed and the juice went straight to French oak hogshead barrels. From these barrels, 44% were new. The juice was then left for natural fermentation from the indigenous yeast that inhabits the cellar, creating a wine that is both complex and textural. Some of the barrels underwent a natural malolactic fermentation which has added weight and richness to the wine. After 11 months in barrel with regular battonage, the wine was then blended and spent a further 6 months in vat before bottling.

Food Pairing: Enjoy on its own, or try with a pan-fried Snapper.