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Chardonnay Hot Picks
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This is one of our favourite and most popular quality chardonnays we've ever sold. From vines planted in 1993 and the key to this quality is a unique vineyard site. Blacks vineyards are located on a limestone subsoil in Waipara ( on which many great French vineyards are situated- Chablis, and Burgundy ). Limestone not only controls yields but imparts into the wines complex, minerally characters that add an extra dimension to the overt fruit characters of most N.Z wines. 18/20 from Raymond Chan ( senior wine judge ) who writes " Bright, full, light golden, straw-yellow colour, this has a bold and broad nose of ripe, yellow stonefruits, melons, and mealy nuanced fruit with good nutty, toasty oak. This is a full-bodied, open and accessible wine with brassy, ripe peach and citrus fruit flavours and equally expressed nutty oak backing. There is plenty of power and depth, and along with the acidity, the wine has the structure to keep well over the next 4-5 years, offering enjoyment all that time. Match with firm flesh fish, rich poultry and roasted pork."Also 90/100 from Bob Campbell who writes "Rich and creamy Chardonnay with a mix of peach/nectarine and citrus plus nut, mealy savoury characters. Intense and complex Chardonnay with power."
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Simon Waghorn is a perfectionist both in the vineyard and winery and it certainly shows in this delicious chardonnay. Simon cut his teeth making the famous Corbans Private Bin Gisborne Chardonnays - so he knows how to make that lovely classy, rich, creamy chardie. "The 2009 was hand picked, fermented and matured in oak barrels, and given a full, softening malolactic fermentation. Its a stylish, fleshy wine, buttery and toasty, with finely balanced acidity and good complexity. It will age well." Absolute top NZ chardonnay
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Normally $22 -from a small hands on, boutique winery whose chardonnay has been in the Cuisine Top 10 Chardonnay's three times before and a personal favourite of ours because it delivers superb quality ( even at the $22 price point we were selling it for! ) and now we have a huge deal on it. Beach House have supreme vineyards at Te Awanga in the Hawkes Bay. Alll the fruit is micro managed right through to bottling. "Aromas of manderin, pineapple and peach with a nutty seductively powerful ripe citrus palate. Barrel fermented, full maloatic fermentation and lees stirred for a year, this is a fine textured and complex wine." Beautiful chardie.
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'Made by the ex chief winemaker of Seifreids who made legendry chardonnay and he has carried on this tradition now with his own winery. Blackenbrook wines have burst on the scene in Nelson. This is an excellently priced, quality chardonnay. "A seductively supple and luscious wine with elegant butterscotch, bran biscuit and toasted nut flavours adding complexity to citrus fruit and pineapple characters." Great value well made chardonnay
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Just released and long awaited- none was made in 2008. This is one of those creamy smooth classic chardonnays we are so often asked for. This winery knows how to make this style as the winemaker used to be chief winemaker at Seifreids who won countless awards for this style. A single vineyard growen on the Moutere clays. Hand picked, hand sorted, gravity feed, 12 mths barrel aging, 100% malolactic fermentation.
"After ageing for 12 months in new French 500 Litre
barrels, this is an attractively opulent wine with
sizzled butter, bran biscuit and toasted nut flavours
adding complexity to citrus and pineapple
characters.
The wine is built for ageing and we recommend
to enjoy it between now and 2014.
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"A consistently classy chardonnay. The 2008 vintage, fully French oak-fermented, has a fragrant, youthful bouquet, citrusy and biscuity. Mouthfilling, it's a rich, elegant wine, tightly structured, with grapefruit-like flavours, slightly nutty, mealy and buttery, and a dry, minerally finish. It should be long-lived." 4 1/2 Stars M.Cooper . Alistair Soper makes Highfield's classic Marlborough wines only when consistency of quality and style is possible. Limited production, defined styles and rigorous de-classification ensures the making of consistently high quality wines.
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Normally this retails elsewhere at $22. Always a favourite and so well priced. The 'Limeworks' vineyard is strewn with limestone and in fact sits next to a limeworks ( hence the name for this wine ). "The bouquet is mealy and oaky, with good complexity; the palate is rich, with stone-fruit, nut and butterscotch flavours, good acid spine and a long finish. Brillant, brilliant chardonnay buying.
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Elsewhere $26. For those who like the big styled chardonnay. A single vineyard from the famous Tietjen Vineyard at the base of the Hexton Hills. 'Designed as a full bodied, oak influenced style, this wine is fermented and matured for nine months in partly new French oak barriques. The classy 2009 has a fragrant, toast, mealy bouquet, leading into a complex palate with ripe grapefruit- like flavours. A finely textured wine, it is rich and youthful. 4 1/2 Stars" M.Cooper
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Normally over $20. Made by the talented team at Pegasus Bay this is always a rich, ripe, mealy styled, good value chardonnay. "This was a special vintage for chardonnay with a warm summer and a lingering, dry autumn. Crop levels were naturally modest but well balanced. Traditional Burgundian methods were used to make this wine, including natural primary and secondary (malo-lactic) fermentation and ageing in French oak barrels for 12 months (sur lie).
A core of ripe, citrus fruit seems to intermingle with hints of stone fruits, such as nectarines, greengages and yellow plums. There are also savoury nuances, suggestive of barbequed sweet corn and grilled bacon. The latter should become more prominent over the next few years. The wine initially appears soft on the palate but gradually expands to become mouth-filling. It retains elegance and finesse with a current of minerality which flows through the wine, drawing out its length.
Well priced consistent chardonnay.
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A beautiful restrained French chardonnay "I have said this many times but it is worth repeating: Daniel Barraud is without question one of the finest growers in all of the Maconnais and there is a credible arguement to be made that his remarkable consistency vaults him right to the very top of the list. This man almost never misses. The 2009 has vestiges of secondary fermentation aromas fighting with the spiced pear and white flower aromas but the detailed, racy and minerally flavors possess slightly more prominent acidity, especially on the tension-filled, dry and punch finish."88-90/100 Burghound ( Burgundies most respected wine critic )
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