Philip Shaw The Architect Orange Chardonnay 2023

This chardonnay from Orange has amazing power of fruit and clarity balanced with layers of character and complexity.The varietal fruit flavours are present leaving a wonderful fresh, clean and long finish. Chardonnay is the most established variety in the Orange region and is noted for its bright elegant styles. It is well suited to the varying altitudes and conditions. Koomooloo vineyard has produced some outstanding chardonnay over many years. Fruit for The Architect comes from our younger vines planted in 1995. The block it’s grown on has a southerly aspect facing the mountains, receiving only the morning sun and maintaining a very cool temperature. Leading up to the 2011 vintage, we had moderate wet weather but with careful selecting we were able to pick clean very clean fruit, which was further checked on the sorting tables – it was necessary to pick these grapes by hand, carefully sorting only whole clean berries. Once presses the juice was allowed to settle to remove any heavy solids. Fermentation occurred utilising yeast from the vineyard at a moderate temperature taking about 14 days to complete. The wine remained on yeast lees for 6 months in old French oak barrels and small stainless tanks. This allowed a build up of complexity without a noticeable amount of oak character.