Pair our Mt. Beautiful Chardonnay with pan fried snapper, chicken marbella or fresh baked salmon.

2024 was an outstanding vintage for North Canterbury. A hotter summer than in recent years meaning that harvest was one of the earliest on record. Vintage itself was a dream with a few rain days but nothing that hindered harvest. Veraison was unusually long given a cool damp period from the end of January to mid-February. Expectation was for an earlier vintage but the slightly cooler lead in provided an extended ripening period and pushed out harvest by 10 days.

The grapes were hand harvested, sorted then whole bunch pressed with a small portion drained directly to barrel while the remainder settled overnight in tank before draining to barrel for fermentation. 100% wild yeast were used in a mixture of old and new French oak barrels. Post fermentation the wine in barrel was stirred for the first two months then left to sit through winter. In spring as the wine warmed, the majority went through malolactic fermentation to soften the acidity and add complexity to the wine.

The wine was left in barrel for 11 months before racking off gross to tank where it was allowed to settle and harmonise before bottling in May.

Our Chardonnay is planted on the most Northern part of the vineyard and is hand tended and hand harvested. The clone is B95 grafted onto rootstock. The vineyard leaf plucked to provide mottled shading to enable ripening without causing the fruit to get sunburn. Our first vintage was 2013.

Chardonnay Vineyard Stats:
Planted 2004-2011
C block, 1.9 ha
Spacing: @2.4 x 1.65 m
5,028 vines

Alcohol 14.0%
TA 5.9 g/L
RS 2.1 g/L
pH 3.4

Bottled: 22 May 2025
Production: 624 cases