Chardonnay Captains Creek Vineyard 2019 Joshua Cooper
Chardonnay Captains Creek Vineyard 2019 is an Australian white wine produced by Joshua Cooper. The grapes come from the Captains Creeks vineyard which is located in Blampied, six miles west of Daylesford, just outside the Macedon Ranges GI. The 10-acre vineyard is planted to pinot noir and chardonnay on a north-facing elevated slope at an altitude of about 1,650 feet. Because of the cool, windy climate, the fruit ripens with more difficulty, with small berries and thick skins.
Manual harvesting with careful selection in the vineyard is followed by partial crushing of the grapes with the feet for about four hours. After 24 hours the must is racked with the fine lees into French oak barrels for one year, then transferred to stainless steel with all the fine lees for a further élevage of six months before racking and bottling.
The wine is neither filtered nor clarified, the only addition being a small dose of sulphur the week before bottling. The 2019 Captains Creek Vineyard Chardonnay is a pure, tasty wine with character. It expresses herbal hints, delicate aromas of young almonds, olive, citrus and citrus blossom. Fresh yet juicy, the sip is pervaded by an intense saline minerality and is long and tasty.
REGION: Western Victoria, Ballarat (Australia)
GRAPE VARIETIES: 100% Chardonnay.
VINIFICATION: 12 months in four pieces of third-passage Burgundy and a new Stockinger 600mL demi-muid.