GREYWACKE CHARDONNAY 2012 Wine Review

GREYWACKE CHARDONNAY 2012

Marlborough, New Zealand

Community Score:93/100

Community Reviews: 1

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Wine Type: White Wine

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Reviews and Ratings

Steve Kubota rated this wine as 93/100 with the following review:

GREYWACKE Kevin Judd
CHARDONNAY 2012
BLENHEIM (MARLBOROUGH), NEW ZEALAND

From the Winery:
Greywacke is the Marlborough label of Kevin Judd, and the fulfilment of a long held dream. The name Greywacke was adopted by Kevin and his wife Kimberley for their first Marlborough vineyard located in Rapaura, named in recognition of the high prevalence of rounded greywacke river stones in the soils of the vineyard. Kevin registered the name back in 1993 with the vague notion that he might one day want to use it on a wine label of his own.

This quality focused winemaking venture sources fruit from mature vineyards within the central Wairau Plains and the Southern Valleys. These prime viticultural sites are cultivated using yield restricting vineyard management techniques and intense canopy management regimes. A number of the vineyards are owned by the Sutherland family, while complementary grape parcels are acquired from additional select sites, all located within these sub-regions.

The wines are made by Kevin at Dog Point Winery in the lower Brancott Valley, a facility extended to him by long-standing friends and industry colleagues, Ivan Sutherland and James Healy.

Viticulture:
The grapes for this wine are primarily sourced from the low-yielding Mendoza clone, known for its concentration of flavour and crisp acidity, the balance were from Clone 95. The majority of the fruit was sourced from the lower reaches of the Brancott Valley and Fairhall, grown in gravelly, clay-loam soils, the remainder coming from Rapaura, grown in young alluvial soils containing high proportions of New Zealand’s ubiquitous greywacke river stones. All
vineyards were trained on a two-cane VSP (vertical shoot positioning) trellis.

Winemaking:
The vineyards were hand-picked separately at high ripeness levels and whole bunch pressed using very low maceration press cycles. The resulting juice was lightly settled and racked to French oak barriques (20% new).
The juice was allowed to undergo spontaneous indigenous yeast fermentation, the final phase continuing for many months. The wine received occasional lees stirring and underwent a complete malo-lactic fermentation. It was transferred out of oak after 18 months and bottled in December 2013 with an alcohol of 14.5%, pH 3.35 and acidity of 7.0 g/l.

My Tasting Notes:

I tasted the Greywacke Chardonnay at a New Zealand Bubbly and Chardonnay promotion. The wines were chosen by an astute panel of industry experts in New Zealand to help showcase the best of the best wines for each category. There are two main islands that comprise New Zealand. The Greywacke Chardonnay was tasted with four other south island producers and six producers from the north island. There are quite contrasting styles from each region making this a potpourri and flavourfest for lovers of Chardonnay.

Kevin Judd is world renown for his sublime Sauvignon Blanc and his ability to produce mouth-watering Chardonnay won’t be a secret for too much longer. This is a refined and deliciously balanced wine that exhibits abundant fresh orange and juicy lemon citrus notes in the bouquet and on the palate. There also pear and apple notes in the smooth, lush and flavourful finish. This is one of the best Chardonnay at the event. The wine is excellent and many will drink it on its own but you can pair this with a wide variety of fresh oysters on the half-shell. Drink now to 2022.

Varietal composition: 100% Chardonnay
Region: Marlborough
Alcohol: 14.5%
Sugar: 2.9 g/l
Total acidity: 7.0 g/l
pH: 3.35

Tasted on May 14th, 2015

@stevekubota

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GREYWACKE CHARDONNAY 2012 Wine Review

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