Lethbridge Chardonnay 2023

Lethbridge Chardonnay brings together fruit from the Lethbridge home vineyard and two other cool, rocky sites in the Geelong and Henty GIs. The Hat Rock vineyard is located on the Bellarine Peninsula, midway between Drysdale and Portarlington. Named after a hat-shaped rocky outcrop a short distance from the vineyard on the shore of Corio Bay, it was planted in 1996 and sits on a gently undulating, north-facing slope. The soils are volcanic clay/loam overlying limestone, and the cooling effects of the bayside location moderate temperatures in the warmer months. Suma Park Vineyard, on the other side of the Bellarine Peninsula overlooking Swan Bay, sits on shallow red clay over limestone. The salty sea air and chalky soils bring a distinctive savoury/mineral quality to the blend. Closing the circle is the 1996-planted Lethbridge home vineyard, the Moorabool Valley’s coolest site. It’s a low-yielding vineyard at 270 metres with thin black clay topsoil on bluestone and honeycomb basalt above limestone bedrock. Yields across the sites average out at a meagre 25 hl/ha.

The parcels are kept separate but are vinified the same way: pressed as bunches for spontaneous fermentation in 100% new oak. It undergoes full malolactic conversion and maturation in 35% new wood for 11 months. All barrels are custom-built by John-Louis Bousset to Lethbridge specifications, and the Chardonnay vessels are particularly lightly toasted. This is top-shelf Chardonnay by any measure, with vibrant, vivid flavour, incredible depth and impressive texture and length. Just masterful.