Black Barn Barrel Fermented Hawke’s Bay Chardonnay 2019 $39 
If you were wondering what the 2019 vintage was like for the great players in Hawke’s Bay chardonnay – then let it be known that it was, if this wine is any indicator, rather great. This is a wine that I look forward to each year with the impatience of an over-stimulated toddler in a supermarket checkout at 5pm and they’re sitting in the trolley right next to the Perky Nana’s and Chupa Chups. You understand the desire right? With lifted aromas of roast nectarine, grilled grapefruit and toasted, buttery crumpets and powerful flavours of ripe stonefruit, smoky spiced notes and lashings of caramelised oak – it’s a saucy, seriously juicy style that’s drinking beautifully now, but will reward patient cellaring for the next 5-6 years.
