Casas del Bosque Gran Reserva Chardonnay 2013

Medium straw in colour. On the nose heady aromas of lemon tart and ripe pear combine effortlessly with rich notes of toasted almond. In the mouth quince and citrus dominate giving way to mealy yeasty notes and a rich, creamy finish. A lively, fresh acidity imparts excellent structure and length.
91 pts Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar (JR)
– Vivid , green-tinged gold. A vibrant, incisive bouquet evokes fresh lime, pear and white flowers, with a hint of iodine emerging as the wine opens up. Shows very good clarity and depth on the palate, offering concentrated citrus and orchard fruit flavors that open up with air. Deftly combines power and energy and finishes very long, with resonating mineral and floral notes.
All fruit was sourced from our own vineyard – located within the coolest, westernmost reaches of the Casablanca Valley. Sourced blocks planted on a mixture of grey clay and sandy/yellow clays with an average vine age of 15 to 19 years. Cropped at an average of 5 tonnes per hectare (2 t/acre).
Upon arrival at the winery all grapes were first destemmed and crushed to stainless steel tanks (via a chiller in order to drop the temperature to 1ºC or 34ºF) where they were then left to cold soak for 114 hours (almost five days). Following this time the free-run juice was drained by gravity from the tanks. The remaining skins and juice were then dug-out and gently squeezed using pneumatic presses in order to separate light from hard pressings. The resulting juices were then left to cold settle (at 10ºC/50ºF) for 4 days following which time the juice was racked to stainless steel tanks, inoculated with selected yeasts and gravity fed to a mixture of new (35%) and used (65%) French oak barrels where it was fermented during a period of 20 to 40 days (with temperatures peaking at around 20ºC/68ºF). After fermentation had finished the barrels were sulphured at which point battonage (or manual lees stirring) was carried out weekly for the following nine months. After a total of 10 months in barrel the wine was gently nitrogen racked to tank at which point it cold stabilised, filtered and bottled.