Exclusive to the Reserve Cellar in Queensland.

Both varieties were hand-picked and delivered to the winery, where the technique was the same for both wines. The fruit was sorted and whole-bunch pressed and the juice was then clarified and seeded with multiple yeast strains for primary fermentation, which commenced in stainless steel tanks, where temperatures were controlled to a maximum of 20°C. At the halfway stage, when the process has slowed, the fermenting must was transferred to barrel and allowed to finish at ambient. All the barrels were 228-litre French oak.

With the 2022 Ribbon Vale Chardonnay, we pushed the new oak component up to 50%. The reason is quite simple. It was clear very early on that the intensity of the fruit aromas was much stronger in ’22 and we felt the wine would carry more new oak without being dominated and are delighted with the result.

Both wines went through full malolactic fermentation and once completed, each batch was blended, dosed with sulphur dioxide and returned barrel.

Oak aging continued until 3rd January 2023, 9 months in total, when both wines were racked and blended in stainless steel tanks. Fining trials were carried out to see if we could improve the tannin balance in the wines but none of the treatments offered improvement. They were then fined with bentonite for protein stability, cold stabilized and sterile filtered and bottled on 13th January 2023.