Levantine Hill Optumes Chardonnay 2020

Vintage 2020

Varietal blend 100% Chardonnay

Harvest date(s) 2, 4, 10, 13, 17, 20 & 25 March 2020

Bottling date 28th January 2021

Oak treatment 100% matured in French oak (27% new)

Alcohol content 13.0%

Preservative(s) Sulphur dioxide (220)

Ageing potential 10+ years

Winemaking

Hand-picked over the space of 24 days allowing for ideal ripening across specifically selected vineyards. All fruit was hand-sorted then tipped directly to press as whole bunches. Cloudy juice was settled overnight prior to racking to select oak barrels. Natural fermentation was allowed to initiate prior to inoculation with a specific varietally-enhancing yeast strain. Finished wines aged on lees with minimal stirring for 10 months prior to selection & blending.

Winemaker’s notes
The 2020 vintage provided an ideal inaugural opportunity for us to present an overall expression of Chardonnay provided from multiple sub-regions of the Yarra Valley. Grapes were sourced from seven select vineyard sites from locations across the central valley floor rising up to the higher, cooler later-ripening upper Yarra to the south. The intention of this breadth of scope is to create an exceptional and complete wine of regional typicity, combining the individual site-specific strengths and expressions to deliver the optimum expression of our regions’ enviable reputation with this variety.

Showing volume and weight with finesse and restraint, this intense, slow-building, enticingly fuller -bodied Chardonnay is the result of an assemblage of seven vineyard sites. It leads with an aromatic intensity of pear, fig, caraway seed, dates, crème anglaise and char with an undercarriage of flint and chalk. The complex, plush and textural palate delivers richness with focus and precision. Befitting a regionally representative wine of this ilk, the intensity of presence, flavour and subtle power resound with length and persistence.

As a young wine, decanting is recommended.