Radburnd Chardonnay 2019

Radburnd Cellars, founded by legendary winemaker Kate Radburnd, is a boutique winery located in Hawke's Bay. Known for its focus on crafting small-batch, high-quality wines, the cellar showcases Kate’s decades of expertise and passion for winemaking. Their portfolio features meticulously produced Chardonnay, Merlot, Syrah, and Cabernet Sauvignon, reflecting the region’s diverse terroir and ideal growing conditions.

They work with vineyards that have the perfect characteristics for the wines they want to make, and with growers they know and trust and who prize sustainability and minimal intervention. Kate and her team are hands on in every step of the process - from picking grapes in the vineyard, to tasting and testing every barrel.

The result is a range of elegant, balanced wines which reflect the vintage variations which are a characteristic of cool climate wine making.

Old vine Mendoza Chardonnay was sourced from two sites in Hawke’s Bay. Grapes were hand harvested and cooled overnight, before being sorted then whole-bunch pressed. The majority of juice was cold settled then racked to barrel. Fermentation was in new and seasoned French oak, with selected cultured yeast and indigenous yeast, for added complexity. A combination of 500L puncheons and 225L barriques were employed. Lees stirring post fermentation was regular and malolactic fermentation was completed in barrel. The Chardonnay matured in barrel for 9 months before blending and bottling.