Invitational Margaret River Chardonnay 2022
WHITE PEACH • RAW CASHEW • WET GRANITE
Nestled in the Margaret River hills is Victory Point Vineyard, the source of the beautiful fruit for the first Chardonnay from Duke's Vineyard. Four clones grown in gravelly clay loams were hand-picked, whole bunch pressed cold, wild yeast barrel fermented in French barriques and hogsheads (35% new) and sat on lees for 10 months before blending and bottling. The resulting wine is a focused, elegant expression of flint and mineral with great generosity and textural creaminess. 261 cases made. 750ml.
Accolades
96 points, The Real Review
Ranked #3 of 53 2022 Chardonnay from Margaret River
Light-medium yellow and bright in the glass; intense grapefruit, sweet-herb and lemon-balm aromas overlaid by a nutty, peanut brittle trace from oak-maturation. The wine remains delicate, reserved and refined in the mouth, with excellent line and length. Intense, concentrated lemon/citrus fruit. An impressive young chardonnay that will certainly age superbly. A stunner.
95 points, Wine Pilot
This is a very fine and elegant style of Chardonnay. It’s certainly tighter than the M2 but it also has power. It’s also a departure for Dukes but not for Cane who has worked with this style before. It’s made from a number of different clones with a chalky minerality taking the palate through to a very long finish. I particularly like the crunchy slightly juicy character which brings life and energy to the palate and complements the lemon curd and brioche flavours. The 10 months in oak, of which 33% was new, is perfectly balanced with the fruit and crisp minerally acidity.
Halliday Top 5 Star Winery
Halliday defines top five-stars as "Outstanding winery regularly producing wines of exemplary quality and typicity"
Appearance: pale hay, green tinged edges
Aroma: lemon citrus wet granite, mineral, lemon curd tart, toasted brioche, malted oats, cream, vanilla pod, touch of anise, white peach, yellow nectarine, raw cashew, hint of basil leaf, curry leaf
Palate: meyer lemon, delicate and creamy, almond meal, cashew butter, refined elegant, mineral length on palate, round fine powdery framing, juicy, fine boned, baked crust, lemon pith, green lime skin, good weight, width and length, focused fine
Cool wet winter with a very high rainfall followed by a warm to hot and dry summer. The vines grew quickly, developing excellent canopies. Delayed bud burst, which affected flowering, gave lower yields. Canopies were hand tended, with fruit dropped where necessary, but the balance was excellent. Hand harvesting was highly selective with sorting in vineyard, but fruit was clean with excellent ripeness. All clones had very complex aromatics and flavours with bright acidities. This was a cool vintage that allowed slow development of complex characters and beautiful acidities.
Nestled in the hills of Margaret River sits Victory Point Vineyard planted in 2000 by Gary and Jude Berson and home to our first Margaret River Chardonnay. An array of clones (Gingin, Burgundian 76, 277 and 96) are planted on gravelly sandy, clay loams to produce a mineral driven elegant expression of chardonnay; dry grown, hand tended and well loved.
Hand-picked, whole bunch pressed cold, wild yeast barrel fermented in French barriques (228L) and hogsheads (300L) (35% new, balance 2 yrs old), each clone remained separate, this wine sat on lees (yeast solids) for ten months remaining separate before being blended and bottled. This focused, elegant expression shows flint and mineral with great generosity and textural creaminess. Restrained, refined and clearly speaking of its cool climate terroir. Blended with minimal fining and filtration it was bottled in February 2023. Released May 2023 in a limited 50 case pre release lot. General release December 2023.
- Vintage 2022
- Alcohol 12.5%
- Vineyard Victory Point Vineyard
- Varietal Chardonnay
- Bottling date February 2023
- Region Margaret River, Western Australia
- Residual sugar <2 g/l
- pH 3.20
- Acidity 7.1 g/l