Scarborough Yellow Label Chardonnay 2022 (Hunter Valley)

The fruit for this wine is sourced from the wineries Gillards Road property and other vineyards from the Hunter Valley with the same soil type; deep hillside red/brown terra rossa of limestone parentage. The fruit is machine picked in the early hours of the morning when it has reached a good balance of sugar, flavour and acid. Once in the winery the fruit is handled oxidatively, crushed, pressed and pumped to stainless steel tanks. Once settled the clear juice is racked and then inoculated to start fermentation. When fermentation is about 1/3 through we transfer the fermenting juice to French oak barrels of varying age. Fermentation is completed in barrel and then malolactic fermentation is allowed to occur naturally (usually around 10-30%). The lees are stirred monthly. The wine is pumped out of barrel to stainless steel tanks and is then bottled 12 months prior to release.