Wildberry Reserve Chardonnay 2015
Appearance: Pale gold colour. Nose: Our Reserve Chardonnay has a bright and lifted nose of sweet pastry, lemon curd and fleshy white stonefruit. Palate: The palate displays a rich and layered mix of fresh stonefruit, citrus and intense vanilla bean flavours. A fine mineral thread ensures a wine of impeccable length and persistence. Drink now-5 years.
June 2017 – The 2015 Wildberry Reserve Chardonnay is lovely example of a Margaret River Chardonnay. This has an attention catching nose with notions of sweet pastry, marzipan, struck match, honeyed apricot/ stone fruit and citrus/lemon curd. Medium bodied, this has a modicum of elegance with edgy acidity giving a precision and cut to the layers of intense flavors of apricot and lemon/citrus that are lip smacking juicy, carrying this to an impressive finish. Just now opening up this will show better with another six months under its belt and then show beautifully for up to five years after that.
92 pts Vinous
Limpid yellow-gold. Powerful, oak-tinged peach, melon and honey scents are lifted by a spicy ginger flourish. Shows impressive energy and lift to the concentrated orchard and pit fruit flavors, thanks to a core of juicy acidity. The gingery note comes back on a very persistent, seamless finish that echoes the melon note. — Josh Raynolds
91+ pts Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate
The 2015 Reserve Chardonnay delivers a beautiful honeyed apricots and marzipan led nose with nuances of baking bread, struck flint, orange blossoms and clotted cream. Medium-bodied, it fills the mouth with elegant stone fruit and yeasty flavors with a racy acid backbone, silken texture and plenty of mineral and savory flavor layers in the long finish. Yum!
89 pts Wine Spectator
Grapefruit and melon flavors are rich, bright and juicy, with accents of peppery white flowers and spice on the finish. Drink now.
Harvest Date: 06/02/2015 / Clone: 100% Gin-Gin / Sub-region: Wilyabrup Harvest Method: Hand-picked. / Harvest analysis:12.5 Baume / 3.24pH / 8.4/L TA
Handpicked fruit is harvested and transported to the winery before spending a night in cold store to ensure cool processing temperatures. Whole fruit clusters are tipped directly to the press. Only the first 500L/t is utilised for the Reserve Chardonnay ensuring a fine and delicate expression of the fruit. Freshly pressed juice is pumped to tank where it is settled for 12-24 hours before being sent to French oak barrels for fermentation. A degree of fruit solids is retained in the juice to further aid complexity and texture to the final wine. Fermentation of our Reserve Chardonnay is conducted by 100% natural yeast and usually takes from 14-21 days to conclude. Following fermentation, the wine is matured in 50% New and 50% one year old French oak barrels with periodic lees stirring for the following 10 months. Bottling date: 08/03/2016
