"Bright condition. Pale golden straw with golden hue. Aromas of ripe white peach, nectarine, lemon cheesecake, fresh vanilla bean and fig. Very complex with subtle notes of nougat, toasted oats, cashew and shortbread in the background. Intense but fresh, vibrant and balanced in all aspects; ripe fruit notes of nashi pear, lime, white peach and rock melon. Subtle secondary notes of shortbread biscuit, freshly baked pastry and oak derived vanilla bean, caramel and roasted nuts. Acidity and phenolics are firm without being aggressive, and interweave with the middle and back palate seamlessly.
We are confident that the Moss Wood 2023 Chardonnay will live for a long time in bottle and evolve gracefully. Over the first 5 years the wine will express its bright primary fruit flavours and the generosity of youth. After 10 years in bottle, the wine will begin to show some secondary characters which in Moss Wood Chardonnay are toast, biscuit and butterscotch. It is our expectation that after 20 years in bottle the wine will be reaching full maturity and the dominant characters on display will be the secondary notes. We are confident that the wine will maintain good balance after this and will be enjoyable to drink for at least another decade.
The production technique followed our established method - all fruit was hand-picked and delivered to the winery, where it was hand-sorted on our vibrating sorting table. The whole bunches were then pressed using our pneumatic membrane press, and the juice was clarified by flotation in stainless steel tank. The clear juice was seeded for primary fermentation in tank, with multiple yeast strains, and co-inoculated bacteria for malolactic fermentation. Once the ferments reached their midpoint and beyond the risk of temperature spikes, the must was transferred to 228-litre French oak barriques.
After fermentation, all barrels were racked and blended in tank, with the finished wine returned to barrels in May 2023. Of the barrels, 49% were new, and the remaining 51% were second and third use.
After 18 months, in June 2024, the wine was racked and blended in tank and fining trials were carried out. No fining agents improved the balance and, in the end, it was fined only with bentonite, for protein stability. It was cold stabilised, sterile filtered, and bottled on the 4th July, 2024." - Moss Wood
Sustainably-made
