Chardonnay 2006

Vintage

Isabel Wines

Tasting Note

A Chardonnay offering a plethora of flavours with a full, creamy finish. The nose exhibits subtle intensity of honey and caramel nougat intermingled with tropical fruits and hints of vanilla oak. The palate is round with perfumed peaches and pineapples while elegant floral notes give a natural impression of sweetness and delicacy. A fine balancing act between new world intensity and old world finesse – definitely a wine with cellaring potential.

Accolades


“Strong serious wine from a spcial Marlborough site; just a light element of oak which is great, and plenty of food-friendly flavours. A resloute wine, tight, young and yet user friendly now and with more opening up perfectly through the next two years to show its class and finesse”
Peter Saunders, F& B Magazine, October 2008

“Richly complex wine with an attractive blend of white peach, sizzled butter, bready yeast lees and spicy oak flavours together with an emerging influence of toasty bottle development.”
Bob Campbell, September 2008, www.bobswinereviews.com

“This wine was tank-fermented and then aged for 10 months in seasoned barrels. Youthful in colour, it is fresh and fragrant, minerally and slightly creamy, with mouthfilling body, generous, ripe-fruit flavours and a finely textured, lingering finish. Delicious drinking now onwards.”
Winestate Magaines, Australia, September/October 2008

Isabel Vineyard Chardonnay Grapes

Further Vintage Reports & Tasting notes

Vineyard
Isabel Estate Block 1, Rows 36-74
Block 2, Rows 1-24
Block 3, Rows 20-41, 62-84 & 97-153

Variety
Chardonnay Clones: Mendoza
UCD 15 and RUA 1
15, 95, 2123 and 8021

Harvest Date
15th – 30th Aprill 2005

Bottling Date
2nd Feb 2007

Marlborough’s climate offer challenges to Chardonnay and perfect ripeness can’t always be achieved 2006′s warm growing season was a pleasant contradiction and canopy management become more of a spectator sport than anything else.

Crop thinning and bunch shoulder removal was our most utilised technique this year, to ensure richly concentrated juice. Leaf plucking was kept to a minimum to allow bunches to ripen without ‘sunburn’ effects from the enjoyably long sunshine hours.

- Mike Newman

It was a year of perfect ripeness for our Chardonnay. Hand picking and gentle whole bunch pressing ensured all the irches were preserved. Fermentation was it’s usual ‘joint venutre’. 50% of the juice was fermented in stainless prior to being transferred to French barrels while the balance was fermented in second and third year old barrels – different yeast strains were utilised for each technique.

The barriques selected for our Chardonnay consist of several Coopers, of which approximately 20% were new. Batches were kept separate, seeking to retain fresh mineral acidity and natural varietal characteristics with regular lees stirring to contribute to mouth feel and lifted aromatics. The ’06 Chardonnay enjoyed 10 months in oak prior to bottling.

- Patricia Miranda

Harvest Analysis
Brix: 23.2-24.6
pH: 3.2-3.4
TA: 7.0-8.0g/l

Wine Analysis
13.5% Alcohol
7.2g/l Titratable acidity
3.5g/l Residual sugar