Tasting Notes:

Somerbury Estate Jones Road Estate Chardonnay is a selection of superior quality in the vineyard and made with a view to adding gentle complexity in the winery.

Whole bunch pressing, minimal juice settling and incorporating grape solids during barrel fermentation all work to deliver a complex and engaging young chardonnay.

Oak maturation is carefully monitored to ensure the right amount of time in oak is married with the right balance of new and seasoned barrels.

The Jones Road Chardonnay shows concentrated cool-climate chardonnay characters of grapefruit, peach and nectarine fruits, smooth complex texture and effortless balance.

Viticulture:

To achieve the elegance, depth & characters which Somerbury Estate require, the vines are cane pruned to achieve an even canopy.

Shoot thinning is performed as early as possible in September to ensure a low number of shoots per vine helping us create an open canopy. This gives us good air circulation and even ripening.

Summer pruning on the northern side promotes a relatively early harvest.

Vinification:

The hand-picked fruit was whole bunch pressed & cold settled before being run to barrel & tank for fermentation at low temperature to preserve the fruit characters.

The French oak barrel (30% new) fermented component was lees stirred for 3 months to promote oak integration & textural complexity.

The two parcels were blended together prior to bottling.