Chardonnay Pet Nat 10.4%
O'Connell, NSW

100% Chardonnay; half purchased from Belmont Vineyard and the rest from Occulus Vineyard. The fruit came in to the winery quite late for sparkling base, some of it at the end of May which meant that we were able to have a very slow and cool fermentation in the cooler months of Autumn. The goal with this wine was to make a Rural Method without it needing to be disgorged. In order to achieve this we had to cold stabalise and cold settle the juice before it had even started fermentation. This involved holding the juice at 2 degrees C for 5 days prior to fermentation. At such cool temperatures it took a long time for the wild yeast to kick off but they got there eventually. The fermentation took almost a month in the end. This slow fermentation meant that much of the solids had settled out naturally by the time we bottled and as such we have a Rural Method of remarkable clarity considering the fact it was not disgorged. This is the late release rural method- bottles were held back for 18 months prior to being released. - Renzaglia