Viticulture

The year 2003 was the fourth vintage produced from the Staete Landt Vineyard in Marlborough’s Rapaura area. The growing season started off rather cold with a series of frosts through October and Novenmber which inhibited flowering and thus reduced crop load and potential yields. It also enhanced the phenomena of hen and chicken bunches where tiny grapes are associated with normal size grapes. When ripe this produces super concentrated grapes. Cropping level of the vines were about 2.5 tonnes /acre (45 hl/ha). Due to the uneven fruit set this required a small amount of crop adjustment during veraison ensuring that we obtained the best possible fruit with complexity and concentration. Good warm, dry weather throughout the growing season allowed us to pick perfectly ripe grapes that were absolutely clean.


The grapes were hand picked from two different Chardonnay blocks comprising clone 15 and 95.

Harvest Dates: 24th March – 3rd April 2003
Brix: 23.5 –24.5

Winemaking

Only hand picked grapes were used for this wine. These were whole bunch pressed to produce the finest most delicate juice. This juice was settled briefly before being racked straight to barrels to undergo fermentation. The wine was fermented in a mixture of 20% new French oak and 80% older French oak barrels.
A proportion of the wine was allowed an indigenous yeast fermentation adding complexity and extra mouth feel to the wine.
Following the alcoholic fermentation the barrels were stirred regularly until completion of the secondary malo lactic fermentation. They were then aged on lees until they were eventually racked in April 2004.
When racked the different component wines were blended and lightly fined and then returned to barrel to clarify and to homogenize. In all the wine was aged in barrel for 15 months. Finally the wine was again racked from barrels in June 2004 and was given some polishing filtration before bottling.

Wine Analysis

Alcohol: 13.5%; Acidity: 6.2 g/l; pH: 3.25; Sugar: <3g/l

Tasting Note

This wine was aged in 100% French oak barrels the majority of which were older and about 20% were new. This has produced a complex subtle wine that has intense citrus, nectarine like characters overlaying a creamy, hazelnut and slightly spicy character. The wine is full bodied and finishes with a long delicate tightly structured acidity.