Austin’s Chardonnay 2021
$48.00
Introducing our award-winning 20th chardonnay vintage.
This is a rich and enticing white wine with flavours of vanilla bean and creamy nougat. The texture of this chardonnay is as smooth as silk with lashings of well-balanced acidity. Only 7400 bottles of this small batch wine have been produced, crafted by our experienced winemaking team using hand-picked fruit.
Description
Rich and enticing, like a luxurious holiday in a glass. Geelong chardonnay at its finest.
A medium bodied chardonnay with freshness of stone fruits, lemon citrus and a hint of honeysuckle. The savoury like qualities, generous crisp mouthfeel and rich texture give this a well rounded, balanced and layered chardonnay.
Only 4725 bottles of this small batch wine have been produced, crafted by our experienced winemaking team using hand-picked fruit. Parcels are matured separately in French oak, with only the best barrels blended to produce this premium chardonnay. We recommend you serve it slightly chilled in a wide-rimmed white wine glass. 24-hour next business day dispatch for fast delivery. We guarantee the quality of our wines.
The wine details
Vintage: 2019
Blend: 100% Chardonnay
Batch size: 4725 bottles
Bottles: 28/11/19
Analysis: 12.2%
Cellaring: Drink now or cellar until 2027.
Vineyard: Single vineyard wine from our Austin’s estate in Sutherlands Creek, Geelong.
Vegan: This chardonnay and all of our Austin’s and 6Ft6 wines are vegan friendly.
Chardonnay 2019 tasting notes
Appearance: Bright yellow with golden hues
Nose: A beautiful toasty bouquet with notes of peach and nectarine combining with sophisticated and restrained oak use to improve complexity.
Palate: A medium bodied chardonnay with freshness of stone fruits, lemon citrus and a hint of honeysuckle. The savoury like qualities, generous crisp mouthfeel and rich texture give this a well rounded, balanced and layered chardonnay.
Download the Austin’s Chardonnay 2019 Tasting Notes.
Moorabool Valley Chardonnay
Chardonnay was one of the first varieties planted at Austin’s making them some of our oldest vines. The vines are planted in short, north-south facing rows. The short rows allow us to pick multiple small batches.
Cool climate regions, like ours in the Moorabool Valley, excel at producing chardonnay due to its elegant, subtle and buttery ripe flavours, compared to warm climate regions that produce chardonnays with tropical fruit flavours at the core. When picked at the right time, our chardonnay boasts citrus-driven characteristics of lemon and lime balanced by the sweetness of peach and nectarine.
Austin’s Vineyard
Austin’s has been located in the heart of the Moorabool Valley since 1990, a cool climate wine region steeped in rich history. Nestled between Geelong & Ballarat, the Moorabool Valley’s small, family run vineyards provide rich and intense low yield fruit, an ideal terroir for producing award-winning wines.
The Austin’s Estate is across 1,500 acres, with 150 under vine. The land boasts rich volcanic, limestone soils and a terrain that sits in a rain shadow.
Sitting on the ocean floor some 20,000 years ago, this land has been reclaimed by millennia of volcanic activity. Geelong’s Moorabool Valley sub-region has a tough limestone and basalt base. This gives the sub-region its unique terroir and provides the ideal free-draining soil for our grapevines.
Moorabool Valley’s cool climate is continental by nature but still moderated by its proximity to the ocean. This provides perfect conditions to grow world-class wines. All vines are planted north–south and trained vertically. The canopies are managed to provide enough light and air into the fruit zone to maximise vine quality and health.
Careful irrigation during the growing season provides healthy vine growth and even ripening which is the key to quality fruit.
Read more about the Moorabool Valley region here.
Winemaking:
Individual batches are hand picked and transferred quickly to press for the gentlest extraction collecting only 600 litres per tonne. Pressed directly to French oak barrels of which 30% is new. Fermentation is 100% wild in temperature controlled room at 15C to retain delicate aromatics and flavours. Towards the end of ferment the barrels are stirred regularly and topped fortnightly. The resulting wine is left on lees for nine months to provide further textural mouthfeel.
Vintage 2019:
2019 season consisted of low rainfall, cool to mild springtime ripening conditions and an extreme summer heatwave. This meant we had a milder growing period over spring and a fast and furious vintage. Although a challenging growing year we managed to successfully pick the fruit at the perfect point. This resulted in a riper, more fruit driven and juicy wine compared to the structured wines of 2018.
Award winning chardonnay
Silver – 91 points
Mid to light yellow colour, with a mellow buttery, toasty bouquet with some parsley-like herbal notes beneath. Roasted hazelnut is starting to appear. A medium-bodied chardonnay with appealing savoury qualities and good drinkability. It’s starting to show some developed character already. – Huon Hooke The Real Review
Halliday Wine Companion
Silver – 90 points
Hand-picked fruit. Wild-yeast fermentation in (30% new) French oak and left on lees for 9 months. Not an easy vintage, with 9 days of over 38°C in the lead-up to harvest, but the result is a wine with freshness and flavour to burn. Ripe peach, nectarine, lemon citrus and honeysuckle. Crunchy acidity with good depth and textural layering. РHalliday Wine Companion Jeni Port Published 13 August 2021
