It was a wonderful, cool year so we picked it by hand fairly late, and the fruit came in looking pristine.
Tonic Wines
About The Wine
Few wineries enjoy the feverish scramble for their new releases like Tonic Wines. And the fever is well deserved.
They make painfully small batches of wine - in the case of this Chardonnay only 120 dozen - and with the excellent quality and value over the last few vintages, it's no surprise.
This Chardonnay is sourced from the Bowe-Lees vineyard in Woodside, Adelaide Hills. The 2017 spent 40 hours on its skins before being basket pressed to barrel where it lay untouched, unstirred on lees for around 9 months. No malo.
Simple yet incredibly successful winemaking. With only a small allocation available, this may be your last chance to try this fascinating take on Chardonnay. Don't hesitate.
About The Producer
Tonic Wines has only been around for a short time but the wines have caused quite a stir.
These are small batch, handmade, minimalist South Australian wines with an aim to source high-quality parcels of fruit, picked early to capture freshness and vitality.
Tonic declares "We don’t really believe in boring wine", and with the remarkable Chardonnay, Grenache, Mataro and Nebbiolo released thus far, there are no signs of boring here.
These wines are produced in painfully small amounts, sometimes as little as 50 dozen per wine. If you are curious about this winery with mystique, you'll have to act quickly to try their delicious wares.
Clare Valley, SA
From The Producer
Chardonnay was the absolute star of the Adelaide Hills in 2017. It was just killer...all over the region...and we rode the wave as best we could. Heaps of flavour, heaps of acid, heaps of funk. Sounds a bit like Jamiroquai...or is that just us...(yes, 90's tragics)...
It was a pleasure to be back doing our thing in the superb Bowe-Lees vineyard in Woodside. We get together with owners Ann and Michael each year and have a coffee and mull over life, the universe, the vineyard, the wines and everything. They seem to like what we're doing with their fruit and that's almost the highest praise we can think of.
With a happy 2016 vintage under our belts we didn't do anything too different in 2017. It was a wonderful, cool year so we picked it by hand fairly late, and the fruit came in looking pristine. The vineyard is 23 years old now, so some nice maturity to the vines.
As usual we whipped off the shoes and socks and set to it, stomping the fruit with very serious faces on. The juice spent 24 hours on its skins, adding interesting flavour and textural components before being basket pressed into French oak barrels for a natural fermentation. Once in there we left the juice on its lees, with regular topping but without any stirring, until racking and bottling in February 2018. It didn't go through malo-lactic fermentation and the final wine was neither fined nor filtered.
We leave all our wines alone in barrel, un-messed with, quietly maturing at their own speed. Tranquilo! We prefer not even to taste too often as it can sometimes make you doubt yourself and your philosophy. Just trust the quality of the fruit, the decision to pick when you did, and the minimal winemaking.
Blend : Chardonnay (100%)
ABV : 12.20%
Closure : Cork
Drink Until : 2030
Bottle Size : 750ml
Production : 120 dozen
Critic Reviews
It's not the funky beast of last year, but what it lacks in funk it more than makes up for in sheer class. A streamlined Chardonnay here, with grilled citrus, white nuts, a touch of flint and gunsmoke. The acidity weaves a spiderweb of saline through the spine of the wine, there's tactile, light grippiness and long finish of white stonefruit and wood spice. Phwoa. Killer Chardonnay. - Different Drop Wine Team
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