Aromas of freshly baked biscotti, straight from theoven ... grapefruit and lemon peel, roasted Brazil nut and dried figs. Derived from a combination of Burgundian winemaking style and vibrant Marlborough fruit, the palate is chalky in texture and the flavours deliciously refined, with hints of baked apple over flinty yeast characters. The Cloudy Bay Chardonnay 2001 is impeccably balanced and shows potential to age gracefully for at least the next five years.

A textural and full-bodied wine, Cloudy Bay Chardonnay combines New Zealand fruit vibrancy with Burgundian style. Packed full of citrus and stone fruit flavours with a savoury complexity, enhanced by judicious use of new oak, this is an intriguing and complex wine.

Technical notes

The chardonnay grapes, eighty percent the low yielding Mendoza clone, twenty percent UCD6, were harvested from ten estate and grower vineyards located in the Wairau Valley of Marlborough. Soils vary from the silty gravels found in Rapaura to the fine silty loams of Renwick and the Brancott Valley. The vineyards are planted at a density of 1,850 vines per hectare and all vines are trained to the Scott Henry trellis system. The average yield in 2001 was 7.1 tonnes per hectare.

Producer

Cloudy Bay was founded in 1985 as one of the first five wineries in Marlborough, NZ. Synonymous with the world’s finest Sauvignon Blanc, Cloudy Bay has a reputation for winemaking excellence and has paved the way for the success of New Zealand wines. The ultra-premium wines express the purity and intensity of fruit flavors naturally afforded by the top vineyard sites and maritime climate.