Fraser Gallop Estate 2007 Chardonnay

The 2007 vintage in Margaret River was the earliest start on record and earliest finish as well. We picked our first Chardonnay grapes on the 8th of February which is two months earlier than our late 2006 vintage and about a month earlier than usual. A four day heat spike came just after we had finished picking the whites, so the grapes we received were in pristine condition ranging in sugar levels of 12.7 -13.2 Bé. Acidities were surprisingly high ranging from 7.0 -8.05 gm/L with an average pH of 3.30. Flavours were in the citrus spectrum and very refreshing.

Winemaker's Notes

Once hand harvested the fruit was transferred directly to cool rooms and chilled to 8°C overnight. The bunches were gently whole bunch pressed, this allowed us to only extract the juice from the fleshy interior of the berries and not the juice next to the skin thereby minimising phenolic ( tannic) pick up and resulting in a juice with exquisite seamless structure. The chardonnay juice was then pumped to a stainless steel tank, where it settled for 24 hours before racking to 70% new Burgundian coopered barrels (30% in old Burgundian barrels). The juice in the barrel was inoculated with yeast isolated from Burgundy and allowed to ferment slowly in cool rooms at 18 °C. After the primary fermentation was finished a small part of the wine went through malolactic fermentation to increase the complexity of the wine. The high acidity to begin with will soften out beautifully over the first year in the bottle.

Colour

An attractive straw green colour with lime green hues reflects the care taken during the fruit handling, whole bunch pressing and subsequent barrel maturation.

Nose

The nose has attractive Beurre Bosc pear, nectarine, pink grapefruit and lime aromas, very bright and fresh. The wine also has a lovely underlying creaminess from the batonage of the barrels with subtle toast from the oak.

Palate

The palate is lean and zesty, yet intensely flavoured with great length and breadth of taste. It has creaminess in the palate coming from the lees stirring and the malolactic portion was lessened this year giving the wine a more subtle butterscotch complexity on the finish than usual letting the fruit aromas come to the fore. It has the fuller pear fruit flavours underpinned by the leaner fruit flavours of pink grapefruit, nectarine and lime.

Cellaring

The lovely fresh acidity and firm structure will allow this wine to age gracefully and develop nutty complexity over the next 8 years.