Church Road Tom Chardonnay 2021 750ml Church Road

Church Road Tom Chardonnay 2021 750ml

Awarded 5 Stars – Michael Cooper, Michael Cooper Buyers Guide

Awarded 96/100 Points – Cameron Douglas, Master Sommelier

Awarded 95/100 Points & 5 Stars – Bob Campbell, Master of Wine, Real Review

One of New Zealand’s finest Chardonnays, 2021 represents a new high-water mark for the achievement of TOM Chardonnay. The year was as good as any yet experienced for Chardonnay production and Chris Scott and his team have crafted a masterpiece. 

Hand-harvested and hand sorted, the fruit was gently whole bunch pressed directly to French oak barriques without any clarification or additions. Wild primary and malolactic fermentation ensued, and has delivered an extra degree of complexity, textural interest and provided an excellent natural acid balance. Oak was predominantly third and second fill. 22% new oak was also used to further enhance the depth of the wine without dominating the fruit. The wine was matured on full yeast lees in barrel for 11 months with only occasional yeast lees stirring. The final blend is a barrel selection from our very best parcels of Chardonnay.

Targeting wines from the very first few barrels off each press load, this representing an extremely low juice yield of around 300 L/ton. This early portion of the free run juice produces fine textured Chardonnay with great structural linearity and excellent aging potential. To avoid any unnecessary stripping effect, the wine was left unfined and then lightly coarse filtered for clarity prior to bottling. No sterile filtration was used.

Alc: 13.5%

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