2021 Blank Canvas Escaroth Vineyard Chardonnay

Highly Rated
Linear, driven Marlborough Chardonnay. Very poised and pure.

Price:
Sale price$49.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship, only 3 units left
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Description

Matt and Sophie at Blank Canvas source this single-vineyard Chardonnay (Escaroth) from the Southern Valleys part of Marlborough, and it's a ripper.

They have crafted a seamless silky wine that starts off nutty and smoky, then bursts into a lemon/ grapefruit explosion on the palate. The mouthfeel is caressing rather than abrupt, with excellent fruit concentration and a pebbly, chalky outline.

A beautiful surprise to find a Marlborough Chardonnay of such personality.

"Taut, intense and complex chardonnay... Very appealing now but with a promising future. Clearly a great vintage."
- 96 pts, Bob Campbell MW (The Real Review)

"Poised, complex, with good ageing potential."
- Julia Harding MW (Jancis Robinson)

Vineyard: Escaroth Vineyard
Subregion: Taylor Pass
Region: Marlborough
Vintage: 2021
Soil Type: Low-vigour ancient clays
Clone: Clone 95
Viticulture: Dry-farmed and Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand Certified (SWNZ)
Growers: Andy and Kyna Laurie

Winemaker's Notes:
This special one-hectare parcel of Chardonnay is perched on a high, north-facing slope in the Southern Valleys’ Taylor Pass subregion. The vines were originally planted in 2000 and are now established as a dry-farmed block. The naturally small yields of the 2021 vintage has resulted in an exceptionally concentrated and lengthy fruit profile of grapefruit, lemon and white fleshed stone fruit alongside subtle toast, grilled hazelnuts and a hint of flint. Bottled without fining or filtration

96 points - "Taut, intense and complex chardonnay with nectarine, ripe peach, mineral/oyster shell, nutty yeast lees and subtle spicy oak flavours. Very appealing now but with a promising future. Clearly a great vintage." - Bob Campbell MW (The Real Review)

"The Best New Zealand Wines to Try Now"
"New Zealand’s newest Master of Wine, ex-solicitor Sophie Parker-Thomson, has been making small-batch wines from Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough with her husband Matt since 2013, but this is her first vintage of this single-vineyard chardonnay. Putting paid to the outdated notion that female winemakers make “feminine” wine styles, Escaroth is declamatory and bold with burnished, golden fruit and buttered brioche held aloft by a fine net of acidity." Sarah Heller MW, HK Tatler Magazine, June 2021

Top 100 New Zealand Wines of 2021 - ''Very impressive complexity and purity here with struck-match, grapefruit and lemon-peel aromas, as well as peach and some gently creamy notes. The palate has vibrant peach and lemon-curd flavors and grilled hazelnut warming the finish.' 93 Points' James Suckling, 30 November 2021

17.5+ Points "A little less open than the Reed Vineyard Chardonnay 2019 and more savoury. Less stylised, it seems, though still a definite ‘reductive’ aroma and style. Intensely mineral on the palate with outstanding intensity and freshness, with remarkable precision and crystalline purity on the palate thanks to the vibrant fruit, with citrus and blackcurrant bud. Juicy fruit even with all this sophistication, adding sensual pleasure to the cerebral attraction of this wine. Poised, complex, with good ageing potential. Julia Harding MW | JancisRobinson.com 27/01/22

94 Points "A suave and seamless Chardonnay that's very relaxed in its own skin. This low-yield season has provided excellent fruit concentration. The combination of barrels and puncheons infuses a nutty, savory element and there's also an appetizing waft of smoky bacon. A fine line of lemon-peel-like acidity emerges on the mouthwatering finish. Excellent harmony and will improve with additional bottle age allowing the oak aromas to soften. This is the cuvée's inaugural vintage, and I cannot wait to see the next". Rebecca Gibb MW, Vinous Media November 2020

94 Points "From a north-facing slope in the Southern Valleys Taylor Pass. Concentrated savoury chardonnay with chalky, oyster-shell, mineral, grapefruit, hazelnut, almond and baguette crust flavours. A youthful wine that promises to develop well in bottle." 22/5/2020. Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review

94 Points "Intense aromas of wood smoke and barrel spice then ruby grapefruit, peach and baked orchard fruits. Youthful and very inviting bouquet. On the palate - weighty, silky, warm, fleshy, spicy, smoky and dry. Fruits flavours reflect the nose with yellow fleshed stone fruits, some apple and grapefruit. Lovely wine on the palate - a Chardonnay lovers paradise. Still developing so no rush to drink till mid, even end of, 2021 and through 2025." 31/05/20 Cameron Douglas MS

4.5 Stars "The very ageworthy 2019 vintage (4.5*) is a single-vineyard wine, grown at Taylors Pass, in the Southern Valleys. Hand-picked, it was fermented with indigenous yeasts in French oak barriques and puncheons (30 per cent new). Bright, light lemon/green, it has a fragrant, youthful, complex, slightly smoky bouquet. Weighty, with generous, grapefruit-like flavours, a subtle seasoning of oak, excellent complexity, balanced acidity and a tight-knit finish, it should be at its best 2022+." Michael Cooper, Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide 2021.

Blank Canvas

Blank Canvas is the brainchild of Matt Thomson and partner Sophie Parker-Thomson MW, a fascinating, innovative wine industry couple based in Marlborough, New Zealand.

Matt has spent more than 20 years completing two vintages a year (one in each hemisphere) and is an energetic and detail-oriented winemaker. Sophie is more the academic who came to wine via a stop-off in the law profession but has since become one of New Zealand's most respected Masters of Wine.

Together they have amassed a stunning tapestry of single vineyard sites across New Zealand from where they source fruit, including vineyards in Marlborough, Hawke's Bay and Central Otago. They seek out ways to challenge winemaking orthodoxy and are not tied to any one region or style. For Matt and Sophie every region, and every vintage and every single vineyard is a blank canvas on which they can paint.

Matt Thomson and Sophie Parker-Thomson MW Discover Blank Canvas

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