Lethbridge 'Estate' Chardonnay 2023

$57.00
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There are few tales as impressive as that of Lethbridge Wines. Ray Nadeson and Maree Collis were both successful medical researchers before succumbing to their desire to create a vineyard and winery in Geelong. They planted vines on their own rootstocks, built a straw-bale winery and house, and farmed the land according to biodynamic beliefs. Their wines are powerful, structured, pure and long-lived.lived.

Lethbridge Chardonnay brings together fruit from the Lethbridge home vineyard and two other cool, rocky sites in the Geelong and Henty GIs. The Hat Rock vineyard is located on the Bellarine Peninsula, midway between Drysdale and Portarlington. Named after a hat-shaped rocky outcrop a short distance from the vineyard on the shore of Corio Bay, it was planted in 1996 and sits on a gently undulating, north-facing slope.

Suma Park Vineyard, on the other side of the Bellarine Peninsula overlooking Swan Bay, sits on shallow red clay over limestone. The salty sea air and chalky soils bring a distinctive savoury/mineral quality to the blend. Closing the circle is the 1996-planted Lethbridge home vineyard, the Moorabool Valley’s coolest site. It’s a low-yielding vineyard at 270 metres with thin black clay topsoil on bluestone and honeycomb basalt above limestone bedrock. Yields across the sites average out at a meagre 25 hl/ha.

“Aged 11 months in oak (approximately 40–60% new, depending on vintage). Butter, cream, spice, baked apple and floral, saline and toasty. Compared by owner/winemaker Ray Nadeson to Chablis in its saline/cream combination. It would be premier cru, at least, in that case – there is such awesome depth of flavour and complexity. Persistent and opulent to finish.” 17.5pts | Richard Hemming MW | jancisrobinson.com

Organically & Biodynamically managed

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