Seifried Nelson Chardonnay 2013 - Cellar Release

Vineyard: Seifried Rabbit Island and Redwood Valley vineyards
Sugar at Harvest: 23.8°Brix
Date of Harvest: Early April 2013
pH of Wine: 3.47
T.A of Wine: 6.4g/L
Residual Sugar of Wine: 2.1g/L

The fruit is predominantly from our Rabbit Island vineyard which is situated on a wide river flat. The soil is gravelly sandy loam, which marks the sites of Māori kūmara beds (sweet potato) prior to European settlement in the early 1800s. The Māori transferred and spread fine gravel and sand over the land to provide suitable soils for their kūmara plantings. Scrub was burned to give ash and charcoal, which increased soil fertility and gave characteristic topsoil. This fertility is now considerably reduced due to modern farming. The soils are, however, very sandy and free-draining. The water table is relatively high ensuring adequate underground water.

This vineyard is about 1.5 km from the sea, which helps moderate temperatures. In addition, there is a smaller component of this blend with the fruit coming from our Redwood Valley vineyard.

The “hen and chicken” berries of the Mendoza clone of Chardonnay give full tropical flavours. The grapes for this Chardonnay were grown adjacent to the winery and also in our Redwood Valley vineyard which dates back to the 1980’s. The fruit was harvested and brought to the winery where it was immediately pressed and cooled for a 24 hour settling period. Following this, the juice was racked and warmed before inoculation. Once the ferment was active it was gravity fed into one-year-old French barriques. The wine completed primary fermentation in oak before then undergoing malolactic fermentation. During fermentation, the barrels were hand stirred regularly to build palate weight and structure. Following this, the wine was left sitting on lees for a further ten months before being racked from barrique, blended and prepared for bottling.