2021 Redbrook Reserve Chardonnay

winemaker's note

This wine achieves the difficult balance of providing a wonderfully complex Chardonnay drinking experience without sacrificing fruit freshness and vitality. As a result, this expertly made wine will be just as rewarding to lay down as its red counterparts. It will very slowly develop more subtle complexities and character for years to come while ensuring fruit and hence regional character is the focal point of the Redbrook Reserve style.

colour

Light straw with a vibrant green rim. Incredible youthful condition for its vintage

aroma

The wine shows malt, fresh toast and struck match complexity from wild barrel fermentation.

palate

The palate is seamless and delicate nature coupled with copious layers of flavour that persist long after the wine is gone

cellaring

Although beautiful now, will continue to develop complexity for at least ten years from vintage. 

vintage

winemaking

Handpicked into 10kg tubs which were then cooled for 12 hours to ensure the fruit was 8-10C before being pressed. The cold whole bunches of Chardonnay were then tipped into the press which then squeezed the juice out by the use of an airbag inflating to low pressures – this is the most gentle way to extract the juice and is a prerequisite to making world class Chardonnay wine. The juice was allowed a limited amount of controlled oxidation with the turbid juice then going straight into barrel – 100% French oak puncheons (500L) used with 18% being new and the balance 1yr old. All barrels wild fermented on solids to dryness before a small amount of SO2 was added, and the wine chilled and barrels topped and bunged. No MLF was allowed. Battonage was undertaken on each new barrel every 4 weeks and on the 1yr barrels every 8 weeks. Barrel maturation was conducted at 15C for 10 months followed by a further 8 months on yeast lees in tank before 1yr bottle maturation.

region

Margaret River

variety

Chardonnay  

analysis

• Alcohol: 13.5%
• pH: 3.02
• TA 8.48 g/L

Fried lemon and almond coated King George Whiting with crab salad.

National Wine Show of Australia 2024

Royal Hobart Wine Show 2023

The Cliff Heard Perpetual Trophy for the Best Chardonnay Dry White

Melbourne royal wine awards 2023

Best Western Australian Chardonnay

Sydney Royal Wine Show 2024

Wine Show of Western Australia 2024

James Halliday Chardonnay & Cabernet Challenge 2024

Jane Faulkner, Halliday Wine Companion 2025

A wine that ebbs and flows; one minute, lots of flavour, all citrus, spice and stone fruit, then the next, pared back, revealing a tight acid backbone and a slip of creamy lees. Then again, flinty, fine, and next, a shot of oak, superbly integrated. Everything comes together; the result is a rather stunning chardonnay.

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