Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay 2023 $35-$39 
From one of the most challenging vintages Hawke’s Bay has ever seen, where Cyclone Gabrielle roared through the region and devastated so many vineyards and dumped an unholy amount of rain just a week or two before harvest was due to begin. Fortunately Trinity’s Chardonnay grows in the Gimblett Gravels. In this ancient, deep gravel riverbed, surface water drains away to an underground aquifer at lightspeed. So when the sun came out and the berries on the vines began to dry, Trinity’s low-yield Chardonnay was able to ripen deliciously and the resulting wine is ultra-concentrated yet elegantly styled. Perfumed with a lick of grilled grapefruit and baked nectarine, toasty, caramelised oak, toasted almond and a lift of flinty minerality wraps around its citrus core. Beautifully balanced, expertly crafted, and long on flavour. A true classic. Drinking deliciously now, but another 5 years in the cellar will bring even more excitement. Video review here
How was it made? Hand-harvested fruit was gently pressed and fermented with indigenous yeasts in predominantly 500-litre French oak puncheons, and a small number of 228-litre French oak barriques. 37% of the barrels were new. Malolactic fermentation was encouraged to soften the acidity and impart further richness. The wine spent 11 months in barrel before being blended to tank for a further four months of maturation on its yeast lees to build additional texture and complexity. The wine was bottled in July 2022 with no fining and minimal filtration.
