Lions Tooth Chardonnay 2014

$120.00

42.2hl/ha from this steeply inclined, east facing home block. Gorgeous soils, with nut and crumb structure and great mineral fertility: 30% clay, 15-20% active lime.

Late April pick, whole bunch pressed, indigenous yeast starter culture with ferment lasting 12 months, half in clay giare, and half in used French oak. Natural, spring malolactic. Nine months on lees in barrel, then transferred to a variable capacity tank for a further month of settling; bottled unfined and unfiltered, with a small sulphur add pre bottling.

Alcohol 11.3%.                                         Production: 390 (6 x 750ml) cases.

Pale, brilliant platinum/gold.

Begins empyreumatic, and ferruginous, like red bricks in hot sun. Also a dried flower note: straw daisies. Emerging scents of acacia, and pear, prettify the aromatic spectrum.

Intensely saline, mouth-tremblingly electric, enormous precision and grip; flavours of bitter orange (not bitter, but more acid, less sweet than tangerine or mandarin) and new nectarines.  The active lime tenacity in this wine as strong as we’ve ever seen from this site. Unyielding, acute, insubordinate to sycophantic styles.