Pegasus Bay Virtuoso Waipara Chardonnay 2021 $68
Mat Donaldson and his team only create a Virtuoso when the fruit is exceptional, and in 2021, clearly the Chardonnay gods were smiling on their vineyards in Waipara, North Canterbury. The result is a deeply smoky, complex wine laced with baked stonefruit, charred pineapple and grilled grapefruit. Caramelised, spicy oak bolsters these veins of vibrant fruit and seamlessly integrates them into a seriously silky, deliciously muscular and elegant style which should be in every Chardonnay fan’s cellar. There’s a softly creamy ribbon running through the wine and it wraps around the smoky notes in perfect tune.
Winemaking notes:
“Virtuoso is part of our reserve series, which we only make in exceptional years, provided it does not compromise the quality of our estate wines. It is a selection from the best barrels, coming from some of the oldest plantings in the vineyard. Like all our Chardonnays, we employ traditional Burgundian winemaking methods. The fruit was hand-picked in stages during the second half of March and then gently pressed. The non-clarified juice was then put into large French oak barrels (puncheons), 40% of which were new to achieve optimal oak balance. In these, it underwent primary fermentation by the grape’s natural yeasts. The wine was then matured in the puncheons on its natural deposits of yeast lees (sur lie). In the summer after harvest, it began to undergo spontaneous secondary (malolactic) fermentation. It was regularly tasted during this time, and the fermentation was stopped when the ideal balance was obtained. It had approximately 10 months maturation before bottling”.