With the exceptional 2024 harvest, Mayford Chardonnay ramps up a notch heading into unchartered levels of quality and balance.
Heady with savoury aromatics- gunsmoke, flint, bees wax and grilled nuts and fresh notes of citrus blossom, grapefruit, spiced peaches and crème brulee. It is complex and creamy, lusciously textured with a slight phenolic grip, delicious lime fresh acidity and flavours that go on and on. It is youthful but already there’s a perfect balance of fruit weight, refreshing acidity and length. Of power, persistence and elegance. A beautiful wine that will age phenomenally.
Over the middle two weeks of February, small parcels of Chardonnay were hand-picked, chilled and whole bunch pressed to French barriques, 25% new. Fermentation in oak by indigenous yeasts followed by an eleven-month maturation period with regular lees stirring. Malo was partial- a barrel by barrel proposition- with acid levels monitored carefully to ensure balance.
“This is a wonderful chardonnay in the making. It’s tight, flavoursome, characterful and – in an elegant context – powerful. It tastes of pears, bacon, yellow peach, cedar and crunchy apples, with almond paste and tonic water as whispers. Texture; it has plenty. Length; to burn. There’s a lemonade note here too, which mingles with woodsmoke and cream to intoxicating effect. Set-and-forget this in the cellar for a few years and it will soar.”
95+ Points Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Drink 2027 – 2045+
Bottled February 2025
Bottled under screwcap.
