Cloudy Bay Chardonnay, Marlborough

Description

Cloudy Bay Chardonnay is arguably the estate’s best wine but quite clearly not their most famous. That distinction has to go to the iconic Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc. Cloudy Bay Chardonnay was first released with the 1986 vintage.

Cloudy Bay Vineyards was established in 1985 by Kevin Judd (now at Greywacke in NZ) and David Hohnen (then Cape Mentelle Vineyards, now of McHenry Hohnen in Western Australia) and is today part of Estates & Wines owned by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (LVMH). Cloudy Bay was at the very forefront of quality New Zealand wine production and is partly responsible for unleashing the phenomenon of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc on the world. The winery was named after Cloudy Bay, a body of water explorer Captain James Cook came across during his voyage to New Zealand in 1770. The winery and vineyards are situated in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough at the northern end of New Zealand’s South Island. This unique and cool wine region enjoys a maritime climate with the longest hours of sunshine of any place in New Zealand.

The grapes for Cloudy Bay Chardonnay come from a combination of vineyards including those planted in the stony soils of Wairau Valley and the dense clay of the Southern Valleys. They work together to create a wine that marries ripe stone fruit and citrusy elegance. Key vineyards include Barracks, Motukawa, Estate, Mustang, and Brook Street.

Each site produces a unique flavour profile and allows for an assemblage of a complex, intriguing, textural and balanced wine. The grapes are hand-harvested and whole-bunch pressed. After pressing, the juice undergoes 100% barrel fermentation in French oak barrels using only natural yeasts to add complexity and texture. The wine remains in a barrel, with regular lees stirring, for another 11 months of maturation. Some of the wine is allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation to add balance to the wine.