Matawhero Church House Gisborne Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2021

Matawhero Church House Gisborne Barrel Fermented Chardonnay 2021American & European oak Ripe peach & melon Butterscotch Rich & full bodied "Splendidly styled and complex, showing golden peach, nougat, oatmeal and cedar aromas, leading to a wonderfully flavoursome palate offering excellent weight and richly textured mouthfeel. Generous and opulent, while remaining balanced and harmonious with a lingering creamy finish. At its best: now to 2028" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Apr 2022 "Golden straw yellow hues and very bright

• American & European oak
• Ripe peach & melon
• Butterscotch
• Rich & full-bodied

"Splendidly styled and complex, showing golden peach, nougat, oatmeal and cedar aromas, leading to a wonderfully flavoursome palate offering excellent weight and richly textured mouthfeel. Generous and opulent, while remaining balanced and harmonious with a lingering creamy finish. At its best: now to 2028" Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Apr 2022

"Golden straw-yellow hues and very bright appearance lead to a bouquet of power and intensity from ripe yellow-fleshed stone fruit, whispers of butter scotch and brazil-nut, there’s no mistaking the mix of oak spices and newer barrel sweetness. Lovely weight and intensity on the palate with a satin-cream touch before the fruit, acidity and warming alcohol layer in for complexity and mouthfeel. Dry, well made with a heartbeat of Gisborne and sunshine and a lengthy smooth textured finish. Great drinking from late 2023 through 2030" Cameron Douglas, MS, Jun 2023

Lovely golden colour. Ripe peach and melon layered with butterscotch and toasty oak notes. The palate is big, rich and full with great length and weight.

The grapes for this elegant Gisborne Chardonnay are grown from two select parcels from the Tietjen vineyard in the Hexton Hills or "Golden Slopes" appellation of Gisborne. This narrow 10km strip is made up of small parcels of elevated sloping land. Medium to heavy Kaiti clay base is overlaid with 20-30cm of light black topsoil, with influences from the limestone foothills. The site has had a rich history in producing award-winning Chardonnay for over 20 years and the wine is made from the Mendoza clone of Chardonnay. The vines achieved good ripeness and with low yields came excellent flavours and weight to the fruit.

Harvested in the cool of the morning, the fruit for this wine reached superb ripeness after another warm summer in Gisborne. A portion of the grapes were hand harvested and some machine harvested. With the machine harvested grapes, the juice was cool fermented in tanks till dry and then underwent full malolactic fermentation and spent 4 months on lees. The hand-picked fruit was gently pressed and fermented in a combination of American and European barrels. The barrels selected here are from the parcels we don’t deem quite good enough to make our Irwin "flagship" Chardonnay but are still of exceptional quality to even be considered! The wine also undergoes full malolactic fermentation. The tank portion also spends time on lees in the barrels before the final blending. The wine is then stabilized, filtered and bottled.

Food Pairing: Enjoy with seafood, white meats and cheeses.