Church Road Gwen Hawke's Bay Chardonnay 2023

Church Road Gwen Hawke's Bay Chardonnay 2023"Named in honour of the wife of famous winemaker and Church Road pioneer, Tom McDonald, Gwen Chardonnay explores a more elegant, feminine and refined style of winemaking. Dry and finely textured with subtle stonefruit and floral notes with fresh acidity and mineral edge make this a sophisticated drink that will work well as an aperitif of a versatile food wine" Chris Scott, Chief Winemaker A dry, mineral and slightly steely Chardonnay with exceptional

"Named in honour of the wife of famous winemaker and Church Road pioneer, Tom McDonald, Gwen Chardonnay explores a more elegant, feminine and refined style of winemaking. Dry and finely textured with subtle stonefruit and floral notes with fresh acidity and mineral edge make this a sophisticated drink that will work well as an aperitif of a versatile food wine" Chris Scott, Chief Winemaker

A dry, mineral and slightly steely Chardonnay with exceptional length and finesse on the palate. The wine has a sense of restraint but still has underlying substance. On the nose, the wine is reminiscent of citrus and ripe apple with citrus blossom and acacia florals notes. Subtle mineral complexity provides depth and interest, while there is a gentle creamy richness adding a more textural element to the palate. While beautiful drinking now, this wine should reward cellaring for at least four years from vintage date.

Predominantly coastal Chardonnay from Te Awanga and Tuki Tuki, the cool sea breeze in these areas helps to retain fragrance and fresh acidity in the fruit. Here the soils are a mix of gravel and clay, with a limestone influence that delivers an element of minerality. A smaller proportion of inland fruit from the warmer Redstone vineyard adds an element of richness that helps to fill in the mid palate and balance the wine.

Vines were trained to two cane VSP. Though generally naturally low cropping, we will employ shoot and fruit thinning where required, along with declumping, close canopy trimming and approximately 70% removal of leaf through the fruit zone, to ensure a balanced, evenly scpaced crop with dappled shade and good are flow.

The fruit was very gently pressed which reduces the juice yield, but avoids excessive extraction of the astringement skins and seeds and therefore greatly benefits quality. We targeted the block for earlier harvest than the rest of Chardonnay, aiming for dry, elegant and moderate alcohol wine contrast to the richer barrel fermented style we have traditionally made. To promote textural and aromatic interest, no juice settling or clarification was employed and we simply allowed the wine to begin natural, wild fermentation and subsequent malolactic fermentation in predominantly large format oak Cuves. Cloudy juice and wild fermentation help to promote a sense of mineral or hot stone complexity while subsequent againg on the yeast lees for 11 months prior to blending has added a subtle creaminess to the palate, further enahnced by 28% barrel fermentation in predominantly older French oak. 7% new barrel was used, to provide subtle creaminess without imparting overt oak character.

Food Pairing: Match with a range of fresh salads, seafood, poultry and platters.