Part of the Corofin portfolio since day one, the Carter Ashmore Vineyard lies in Marlborough’s Fairhall sub-region and is situated on an ancient riverbed where the soils are a mixture of layered silt and alluvial gravels deposited over aeons.
This site is planted to the Mendoza clone of Chardonnay and farmed organically by Dog Point’s viticulturists. The vineyard team has worked hard on introducing healthy biological competition, and a canopy management regimen that encourages the vines to channel all their energy into the fruit (rather than vegetation). This approach has given Corofin the ability to harvest fruit that is fully flavour-ripe at lower sugar levels.
The fruit for this wine was hand-harvested and whole-bunch pressed, and then the juice was wild-fermented in a single, seasoned 500-litre French oak puncheon and a small, stainless steel tank. Once completed, the wine then spent 10 months on lees and was bottled without filtration. The upshot is a superb wine with a pillowy texture, vibrant, natural acidity and fine structure. There’s pear, magnolia, citrus notes and lees, complex nuttiness as well. Stunning.