2024 Plantagenet 'York' Chardonnay

Appearance: A light gold in the glass.

Aroma: The nose is lifted and complex with intense, bright peach and nectarine notes alongside rich cashew, lemon zest and a hint of slate minerality.

Palate: A luscious creaminess surrounds a stone fruit core and refreshing lemon curd acidity. Oak maturation lends complex layers of toast and warm spice, producing a mouth-filling wine with a lingering and balanced finish. This is a complex and lively expression of Great Southern Chardonnay.

Combination of handpicked, whole bunch and machine harvested fruit. Pressed tank then racked to French oak barriques (~30% new) with a high degree of solids. Combination of wild and inoculated fermentation held below 20°C. Malolactic ferment not encouraged. Lees stirred weekly initially and reduced to monthly towards the end of maturation. Racked to final blend, light fining, stabilisation, filtration, and bottling.

- Mike Garland, Chief Winemaker

Vintage 2024 occurred four weeks earlier than usual, brought on by warmer than average temperatures in late September and October that accelerated budburst, early season growth to flowering, and condensed the growing season. Warm and dry daytime conditions during February and March then ensured rapid sugar and flavour accumulation in the lead up to the harvest. There were some early season viticultural challenges, with isolated occurrences of frost in late October that resulted in some crop loss. There were also some late season challenges with some heat spikes above 40°C in late January and early February that caused sun damage in some blocks of Riesling and Chardonnay. Yield was down about 20-30% in affected blocks. Overall, red varieties (most notably Shiraz & Cabernet) will perform very strongly and for whites, early picking ensured a balanced, natural acidity producing high quality wines.

Vintage: 2024

Varietal(s): Chardonnay (100%)

Vineyard: 100% Chardonnay from our Wyjup Vineyard.

Technical Analysis: Alcohol 14% | pH 3.36 | TA 6.30 g/L

Food pairing: Western Australian crab linguine with just a hint of chilli.

Cellaring potential of 7-10 years.