2023 Nomads Garden ‘Greenacres Vineyard’ Chardonnay, Alpine Valley
THE WINE
The grapes for this wine arrive from one of the most passionate, salt of the earth growers we know; Brian “Bri” Llewis. His spectacular Greenacres Vineyard in Merriang South is deep in an isolated valley of the sprawling Alpine Valleys GI. It’s so cool up there that it’s not unusual for it to snow over the winter period.
This is of course the same vineyard we take our Greenacres Vineyard Alpine Valley Pinot Noir from, when some Chardonnay came out of a long term contract with a large corporate winemaker we did not hesitate to secure as much of this fruit as we could as everything Bri grows is of the absolute highest quality and his site is perfect for growing varieties suited to the cooler climes of an isolated mountain valley.
2023 was a very cool and mild growing season that required extra attention in the vineyard to navigate the heightened disease pressures. The pressure from rain eased in January and a long dry autumn ensued allowing us to let the fruit reach the optimum point where flavour, natural acidity and vitality are in balance, this is the key to making wines the way we do.
VINIFICATION
The fruit was picked in the cool of the night and delivered to the winery before dawn where it was immediately loaded into the press and pressed on a gentle champagne cycle with an early press cut at around 520L made. We do not treat this Chardonnay oxidatively as we want to highlight the delicate nuances of such a cool site. The juice then chilled and racked to tank with a fraction of only the soft fluffy lees. The juice was then allowed to warm to 18c to allow natural wild ferment to ensue, the temperature was then dropped to 16c and held, this is relatively cool for a Chardonnay ferment. Once the ferment had dropped to around 6 baume it was transferred to seasoned French Oak with an average age of 6 years to complete ferment. Around 20% of the barrels completed MLF. 9 months of fluffy lees with minimal stirring.
We are thrilled with the outcome, the wine is uniquely Alpine and does not try to be something it’s not instead celebrating its fine boned structure, pristine balanced acidity, minerality and subtle oak. We think the Alpine Valleys have great potential to produce very high quality Chardonnay that punch above their weight. We look forward to making many wines from this fruit into the future, mainly because we love to drink them!
Vegan friendly, hand bottled onsite December 2023.
