Austin’s Chardonnay 2018

Chardonnay 2018 tasting notes

Appearance: pale straw

Nose: a rich, enticing aroma of lime and nectarine, melding seamlessly with vanilla bean, creamy nougat and oak-derived characters. There’s a hint of a struck match lingering in the background.

Palate: a silky, satin-like texture, perfectly poised acidity and lashings of flavour that mirror the nose with great persistence.

• Ballarat Wine Show – Gold
• Ballarat Wine Show – Trophy, Best Regional White Wine
• Ballarat Wine show – Trophy, Best Chardonnay
• Geelong Wine Show – Silver
• Victorian Wine Show – Bronze
• Australian International Wine Comp – Bronze
• The Real Review – 95/100 GOLD

Food that pairs well with Austin’s Chardonnay?

• Lighter meat and seafood dishes
• Creamy or buttery pasta
• Roast chicken

The richness of this chardonnay means it can be paired with lighter meat and seafood dishes, cream-based pasta or rich butter-based sauces. Ideal with a traditional roast chicken, eggs with hollandaise or seared scallops. Serve this wine with pumpkin ravioli in a burnt butter sauce to really make the wine sing.

Chardonnay was one of the first varieties planted at Austin’s making them some of our oldest vines. The vines are planted in short, north-south facing rows. The short rows allow us to pick multiple small batches.

Cool climate regions, like ours in the Moorabool Valley, excel at producing chardonnay due to its elegant, subtle and buttery ripe flavours, compared to warm climate regions that produce chardonnays with tropical fruit flavours at the core. When picked at the right time, our chardonnay boasts citrus-driven characteristics of lemon and lime balanced by the sweetness of peach and nectarine.

Austin’s Vineyard

Austin’s has been located in the heart of the Moorabool Valley since 1990, a cool climate wine region steeped in rich history. Nestled between Geelong & Ballarat, the Moorabool Valley’s small, family run vineyards provide rich and intense low yield fruit, an ideal terroir for producing award-winning wines.

The Austin’s Estate is across 1,500 acres, with 150 under vine. The land boasts rich volcanic, limestone soils and a terrain that sits in a rain shadow.

Sitting on the ocean floor some 20,000 years ago, this land has been reclaimed by millennia of volcanic activity. Geelong’s Moorabool Valley sub-region has a tough limestone and basalt base. This gives the sub-region its unique terroir and provides the ideal free-draining soil for our grapevines.

Moorabool Valley’s cool climate is continental by nature but still moderated by its proximity to the ocean. This provides perfect conditions to grow world-class wines. All vines are planted north–south and trained vertically. The canopies are managed to provide enough light and air into the fruit zone to maximise vine quality and health.

Careful irrigation during the growing season provides healthy vine growth and even ripening which is the key to quality fruit.

Read more about the Moorabool Valley region here.

Vinification

The fruit was hand-picked in two batches one week apart to give greater richness and depth of flavour to the wine. Upon picking the fruit was transferred quickly to the press for gentle extraction and pressed straight to French oak barrels, 30 per cent of which were new. The juice was minimally adjusted for SO₂ (sulfur dioxide) and acidity then put into a cool room set at 15ºC. Naturally fermented, the barrels were stirred occasionally and topped fortnightly. The resulting wine was left on lees for nine months to provide further textural mouthfeel. The wine was lightly fined with vegetable protein and then cross-flow filtered and bottled in December 2018.

2018 Growing Season

Plenty of ground moisture and moderate weather conditions through spring and early summer provided ideal growing conditions. Flowering in November was quick, and the berry set was good, despite heavy rainfall late November. Yields were average with plenty of bunches, though lower in weight. A hot summer and minimal rain made for an early start to vintage which was over quickly. Most of the chardonnay was picked on 21 February 2018 at 22.4 brix, pH 3.4, 7.0 g/L TA. Another batch was picked on 26 February at 22.3 brix, 3.3 pH, 7.3 g/L TA. The average yield was 6.56 t/ha

Shipping

We know you’d love to be drinking your wine as soon as possible. That’s why when you buy chardonnay online with us, we will dispatch your order within 24 hours of your placing it.*

We are located in the Moorobool Valley, Victoria. We use either a courier, Fastway or Australia Post depending on the location. Orders are picked up our orders every afternoon at 3pm. Once fulfilled, you will receive an email confirming it’s dispatch with a tracking ID so you can follow it the entire journey.

How much does it cost?

Free shipping AUS wide with any purchase over $99.

For any purchase under $99:

• VIC – $10
• Every other state $20

When will it arrive?

• Geelong – 1-2 Business Days
• Melbourne – 1-2 Business Days
• Rest of Victoria – 1-2 Business Days
• NSW/ACT – 2-3 Business Days
• SA – 2-3 Business Days
• TAS – 4-5 Business Days
• QLD – 5-7 Business Days
• WA – 7 Business Days
• NT – 7 Business Days

If you order hasn’t arrived within this time frame, please contact us so we can chase it up for you.

* In warmer months we will not dispatch orders on Friday to avoid heat issues with wine during transport. During sale times please allow 48 hours for dispatch. 24 hours refers to next business day.

Returns

We are very confident in the quality of our wines. If you buy this chardonnay online and for any reason you feel the wine is not up to standard, follow these steps to enable a refund:

1. Notify us within 30 days of your delivery that you will like a refund. Any feedback during this time would be appreciated.
2. We’ll send you a return shipping label and you can book in a pick up address and time that suits you.
3. Upon inspection of the goods returned, if they are in the same condition as to how they were sent*, we will issue a refund to you.

*’Same condition to how they were sent’ simply means – no damaged labels, wine must have been stored in appropriate temperature conditions (not in a freezer or in direct sunlight or in damp conditions). The shipment is to be sent back in the original box and include the empty bottle of wine you have consumed to ensure the package is shipped safely.

If for some reason the wine was delivered to you damaged, simply take a photo of the stock and we will send a replacement.