Tapanappa Piccadilly Valley 2023 Chardonnay

The late ripening of a small crop in perfect, cool, dry and sunny conditions, has again defined a very special Chardonnay, from Pat and Ted’s Vineyard on Mount Bonython in the distinguished Piccadilly Valley terroir. 

The 2023 Piccadilly Valley Chardonnay has a mesmerising green-yellow colour. The terroir distinctive apple, nectarine and floral aromas also have a hint of exotic fig and spice.  The flavours are intense, the texture significant and the cool year acid is apparent with a cleansing finish.

The aroma is very fresh and delicate, and the flavours are of sweet fruit balanced against the significant cool year freshness and grapefruit finish.

This is a very special wine, the product of a very cool late vintage.

Vintage Notes

The 2023 vintage in the Piccadilly Valley was very cool and very late. The growing season only accumulated 1093oC-days versus the average of 1135oC days. 2023 was the coolest of the four successive cooler vintages from 2020, a welcome relief compared to the hot vintages in the decade prior to 2020.

The 2023 Chardonnay crop was very modest in the Piccadilly Valley at four tonnes/hectare because of the cool, interrupted flowering conditions in November/December 2022, and because the previous vintage, 2021, had experienced cool flowering conditions, reflected in low fruitfulness of the shoots bearing the 2023 vintage.

The Chardonnay grapes on the 30 plus-year-old vines of our Piccadilly Valley vineyards, ripened in still and cool air with sunny conditions and ideal autumnal weather.

The old vines of our Piccadilly Valley vineyards yielded up their precious crop in mid-April.

Winemaking Notes

The hand-harvested Chardonnay grapes from our old Piccadilly Valley vineyards were chilled in trays in the cold-room to 2oC.

The cold grapes were tipped into our gentle air-bag presses and the whole fruit, pressed juice was pumped to tank before being gravitated to French oak barriques (one third new) for fermentation. The fermentation lasted two months in the cool autumn conditions. The wine was barrel aged on full lees until September of 2023 when it was clear racked from barrique and bottled in October.

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