ASTROLABE
THE FARM Chardonnay 2021 750ml

The Farm vineyard is our home block, and the chardonnay here holds particular significance to me because the first wine I made under the name Astrolabe was a chardonnay from this site. I sought out fruit from a wider representation of Marlborough terroir, and this original wine ultimately became my classic Province Marlborough Chardonnay. Over twenty years later, this new release The Farm Chardonnay celebrates the unique character of my vineyard.

The Farm is dry farmed and certified organic. These are the oldest vines we make wine from at Astrolabe. These vines are low cropping, which, combined with dry farming on rich loam soils, provides an excellent concentration of fruit. These chardonnay rows are made up of diverse collection of clones (Mendoza, 15, 2/22 and 6), providing a spread of ripening and harvest dates and a flavour variation throughout the clonal mix.

Hand-picked fruit was whole-cluster pressed, with only the cuvée juice used for this wine. Delicately extracted juice with high retained solids was allowed to undergo spontaneous barrel fermentation, led by the vineyard yeast. Full malolactic conversion occurred as the wine aged for ten months in French oak puncheons. The final wine was selected from three different puncheons of different ages.

630 bottles produced.

Simon Waghorn — Winemaker