Chardonnay 2019
Tasting Notes
We make our McLaren Vale Battle of Bosworth Chardonnay almost identically to this Kangaroo Island Chardonnay, the only difference being the origin of the grapes. Kangaroo Island has a much cooler climate than McLaren Vale, so this KI wine is a leaner style than the BOB Chardonnay, but still shows wonderful varietal characteristics: cashew nuts and stone fruit on the nose. It’s a super balanced which is the aim with every wine that we make. The oak characters, acidity, fruit and length of the wine all come together seamlessly.
Vintage
Dry conditions preceded vintage 2019; we had a dry winter and a dry summer leading into harvest. Flowering in November time was windy and wet, which are not ideal conditions for this important stage of the wine grape growing cycle. We had a poor fruit set as a consequence which means smaller volumes. Harvest came good in the end, but with much lower volumes of wine that hoped for.
Winemaking
We pick the chardonnay at night on KI into small picking bins which are loaded onto the truck and brought under the cover of darkness to the early morning ferry from Penneshaw to Cape Jervis, and from there back to the Bosworth winery in Willunga.
Grapes are gently pressed off skins and then pumped into barrel to begin a natural fermentation (we don’t use any yeast to start the process of sugar into alcohol fermentation, it occurs with the yeasts from the vineyard.). We use 30% new French oak barrels (hogsheads and barriques) with a balance of one and two-year old barrels. We don’t allow the wine to go through malo (malolactic fermentation) as we want to keep the nice crunchy natural acidity.
Other Vintages
Technical Details
Vineyard block: A Block
Picking Date: 23rd February 2019
Alc/Vol: 13.5%
Bottling Date: 2nd October 2019