Church Road Tom Chardonnay 2020, Hawkes Bay
After a few minutes in glass to allow the wine to relax the aromas and perfumes begin to unfurl revealing a wine of concentration and complexity. Scents of ripe citrus and fresh California peach, quince and vanilla, yoghurt, apple and barrel spice. There’s a lees, mineral and gun-flint combination that emerges layering in complexity and detail. The core of fruit remains central to the bouquet. On the palate - very youthful with plenty of energy, warm and generous with a coarse-silk texture contrasted by palate weight, stone and citrus fruit flavours from peach to tangerine, grapefruit and baked apple, reflecting the bouquet with a noticeable acid line and fine tannin mouthfeel. There’s no mistaking the oak layer, but this is judiciously used and will soften into the wine as it ages and develops. A delicious wine reflecting an excellent vintage. Best drinking from late 2022 through 2030.
96 Points
Outstanding
Bottle # 0322 tasted
About this wine’s origins:
VINEYARD - 100% Tuki Tuki Valley / Tuki Tuki Vineyard (41%)
Planted by Tom McDonald in the 1960’s and situated roughly 4km from the mouth of the Tuki Tuki river on the eastern bank, on a gentle slope running down towards the river. Elevated slightly above the surrounding plains, the vineyard is exposed to cooling afternoon sea breezes which help to retain fragrance and fresh acidity, ideal for Chardonnay, the sole variety grown here. The topsoil is a dense clay over a calcareous clay pan that has resulted from limestone outwash from the Tuki Tuki valley. The capillary action in the clay soil holds on to water tightly in the drier summer months, making it hard for the vine to access, while the clay pan restricts root growth. Therefore, vine vigour is generally well controlled, and crops are naturally very modest. The limestone influence brings a mineral element to the wines that we do not see to the same degree from many other sites.
Terraces Vineyard (59%)
On the western side of the Tuki Tuki River and approximately 8 km inland from the sea, on an old river terrace just to the north of Te Mata Peak. This site has very similar soils to the Tuki Tuki Vineyard and has recently been converted to Chardonnay. Initial results are very promising. Terraces is sheltered from the south by Te Mata Peak and so produces richer wines with more emphasis on stonefruit rather that citrus, and a rounder, richer palate structure, though still often with a slate like mineral feel. It offers a complimentary blending option for the Tuki Tuki Vineyard.
VITICULTURE
2020 was another great harvest in Hawke’s Bay. With warm, dry, settled weather over most of the season. A significant sustained drought period lasted from mid-summer through until well after harvest was completed. The vines were trained to two cane VSP. We employed extensive shoot and fruit thinning where required, along with bunch positioning, declumping, close canopy trimming and around 70% removal of leaf through the fruit zone, to ensure a balanced, evenly spaced and well exposed crop. Soil moisture was monitored regularly to regulate a deficit drip irrigation programme. Just enough water is provided to keep the vines in a functioning yet low vigour state that promotes optimal ripening and concentration.
Clones: 548 (57%), 15 (33%), 95(8%), 1066 (2%).
WINEMAKING
Hand-harvested and hand sorted, the fruit was gently whole bunch pressed directly to French oak barriques without any clarification or additions. Wild primary and malolactic fermentation ensued, and has delivered an extra degree of complexity, textural interest and provided an excellent natural acid balance. Oak was predominantly third and second fill. 9% new oak was also used to further enhance the depth of the wine without dominating the fruit. The wine was matured on full yeast lees in barrel for 11 months with only occasional yeast lees stirring. The final blend is a barrel selection from our best parcels of Chardonnay. Typically wines selected are the very first few barrels off each press load, representing an extremely low juice yield of around 300 L/ton. To avoid any unnecessary stripping effect, the wine was left unfined and then only lightly filtered for clarity prior to bottling.
Alc 13.5% v/v | TA 6.3g/L | pH 3.36 | RS 2.5g/L