Tasting Notes

Background: Chardonnay exhibits good flavour levels at high sugar contents. It is also the first white grape to undergo verasion (berry softening, sugar ingress and colour change from green to gold) and the first to ripen. It must be netted or the birds, beginning their attack soon after Christmas, will decimate the crop by the end of February. The vine crops lightly and exhibits good flavour levels if allowed to reach high sugar levels. Once netted, the fruit is completely protected and picking can wait. The sugar gives rise to generously alcoholic wines - wines which are dry, in the sugar sense, yet carry full fruit sweetness on the palate with all the generosity and warmth of all that alcohol.

Of all the white varieties, Chardonnay appeas to benefit most from barrel fermentation and lees contact. With substantial flavour of its own it is not so readily overwhelmed by additions. The result can be impressive but the danger is that it is overdone. Without generosity in the grape, these other flavours, in themselves ungenerous, will overwhelm the wine. I therefore prefer a lighter touch with the oak so that phenolic and oxidative influences from the wood are restrained. It is my belief that the best dry wines should carry fruit sweetness through to the after palate. Our best Chardonnays certainly show that characteristic.

It is already apparent that Karridale Chardonnay has a superior depth of flavour. It provides the bulk of the blend for the first time with the 1998 vintage. From 1999 Chardonnay releases will incorporate the low yielding Mendoza clone growing at Three Hills.

The courtyard garden in Dunsborough

Current Vintage : 2004