Whalehaven Conservation Coast Chardonnay 2016

The grapes for this seductive Chardonnay were hand-picked in the early hours of the morning and stored overnight in a cold storage room at a controlled 4°C. The next morning the grapes were sorted by the whole bunch, selected with great care and then pressed by the whole bunch in the press. The resulting juice was filled into stainless steel tanks where it was left to rest for three days. The juice was then skimmed off the yeast and brought to room temperature before being mixed with selected yeast cultures (Lallemand ICV D21) and transferred to French oak barrels where fermentation lasted for 19 days. Once fermentation was complete, the yeast was stirred daily for two weeks and then at two-weekly intervals for a further 3 months. Finally, the wine was skimmed off the yeast and lightly sulphurised, left to rest in steel tanks for 4 months and lightly filtered before bottling.