2024 SALO CHARDONNAY

2024 marks our twelfth year working with Simon Harte at the Full Moon Vineyard high up in the Southern Hills. He has meticulously tended to these vines over the last twenty something years and the results tell.

Deep roots have taken hold in the red and brown coloured volcanic soils in Gladysdale, allowing these vines to have the resilience to withstand all conditions while giving plenty of energy to the final wine. 

The higher altitude results in a cooler and longer growing season, ideally suited to Chardonnay where we are harvesting generally 3 weeks later than the lower Yarra.

Its been an epic partnership and the 2024 season has delivered a really classic upper Yarra Valley style, a wine that will age beautifully over the next 10 years.

Vintage:

The 23 Spring that sets the crop for the 24 harvest delivered us ideal flowering conditions which led to good fruit set and nice yields. It’s amazing how important those few weeks of weather can be and how it affects ultimately what we can grow and harvest!  December was cool and mild, with a few healthy rain events in early January, that gave the vines a good drink leading into the heat of February.  February was drier and warmer than usual in the Yarra, which lead to excellent ripening conditions with no disease pressure. The final stage of ripening was a little accelerated but we got the picking date just right and the harvest has delivered ultimately giving us a wine with great flavour, bright steely acidity and beautiful balance.

Winemaking:

Hand Picked fruit was chilled in the cold room overnight and then whole bunch pressed to a small tank high in the winery. 

The tank is then rummaged and run to 500 Litre (all second and third use) puncheons by gravity with full juice solids.

Wild fermentation finished in late March and the wine was lightly sulphured a few months later.  50 % of the wine (2 x barrels) went through a spontaneous malolactic fermentation and this helps to build mid palate weight and complexity. A small sulphur add was made a few months after MLF completion.

No stirring, unfined and bottled with a coarse filtration in late November 2024.

The Wine:

Lemons, orange blossom, toasted almond meal and nougat, the palate is tight and fresh but melts away with a beautiful lemon sorbet texture.  The finish is fresh and a little savoury with wonderful tension and bright acidity.

Just 190 dozen produced. RRP $55 13% alc/vol