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Details
Mangatahi
The Mangatahi vineyard of Osawa sits on ancient river terraces formed by the braided Ngaruroro River. Planted in 2006, the terraces are made up of greywacke stone with a topsoil based of volcanic ash, alluvial gravels and silt loams.
Located inland and between two mountain ranges the organically farmed vineyard benefits from low rainfall, warm days and cool nights.
Season
Two cool seasons prior to 2024, coupled with a reasonably wet and cold spring of 2023 led to low bunch numbers and a long flowering period. Small, open bunches and low yields were the result, which isn’t a great thing for the wallet but is amazing for quality.
The rest of the 2024 season was near perfect, with bright, warm days and cool nights producing amazingly balanced and vibrant fruit characters while holding on to brilliant texture and acidity.
Winemaking
Chardonnay – 100% - Clone 15
Handpicked fruit was wholebunch pressed direct to 500L French puncheons with full solids. 25% of which was new oak.
After a few days, wild fermentation spontaneously started and progressed for 21 days with a maximum temperature of 25 deg C.
Post fermentation the wine was stirred a few times and left to mature at cool temperatures.
50% of the puncheons progessed through malolactic fermentation while minimal sulphur was added to the other 50%.
After a total of 9 months of barrel maturation the wine was racked to tank for a further 6 months of maturing on lees.
No fining or filtration.
Alc - 13.0%
Citrus, flint and white stonefruit.
A crunchy, chalky texture with flavours of granny smith apple, chamomile and light toast.
Brilliant acidity and a grapefruit zest finish.