Chardonnay

Our Chardonnay complements full flavoured savoury dishes such as chicken, veal and rabbit with creamy, garlic or lemon flavoured sauces.

The grapes for this wine are primarily the low-yielding Mendoza clone, known for its concentration of flavour and crisp acidity; the balance is Clone 95. The majority of fruit was sourced from the lower reaches of the Bancott Valley and Fairhall, grown in young alluvial soils containing high proportions of New Zealand's ubiquitous greywacke river stones. The vineyards were mostly trained using a two-crane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis, with the balance on the divided Scott Henry Canopy management system.

The juice went though a natural indigenous yeast fermentation in French oak barriques (20% new), with final phase continuing for many months. The wine received occasional lees stirring and underwent a complete malolactic fermentation. was transferred out of oak after 18 months and bottles in December 2019.

The vineyards were hand-picked separately at high ripeness levels and whole-bunch pressed using very low maceration press cycles. Some of the fruit was pressed directly to barrel, the balance was lightly settles and then racked to barrel.

Greywacke is the Marlborough (New Zealand) label of Kevin Judd and the fulfilment of a long held dream. The name Greywacke was adopted by Kevin and his wife Kimberley for their first Marlborough vineyard located in Rapaura named in recognition of the high prevalence of rounded greywacke river stones in the soils of the vineyard. Kevin registered the name back in 1993 with the vague notion that he might one day want to use it on a wine label of his own.