Wines
2022 RIKARD Chardonnay
A textured and full-bodied Chardonnay in the stone fruit & melon spectrum. Made from carefully selected fruit grown at high altitude in the Orange wine region in the cool 2022 season.
Handpicked and sorted. Whole bunch pressed. Fermentation in barrel with intermittent lees stirring. Malolactic fermentation allowed to go through naturally and matured in French oak barriques for 10 months, 25% new. Unfined and unfiltered.
3423 in stock
Description
COLOUR – Pale straw with a green hue.
NOSE – Roasted lemon, Mirabelle plum, white nectarine and a hint of ginger. There’s are lovely shortcrust pastry aroma as well, with sweet caramel oak hints and popcorn.
PALATE – Lovely, complex, well-weighted palate with plenty of interest and layers. Tropical fruits and white peach fill the mid-palate, with lemon curd and hazelnuts interplaying. Texturally, it’s grainy and with good grip which helps hold things together. Oak tannin is supportive only, adding a nice timbery, caramel note. The finish remains light and long – the acid profile zesty throughout.
We had a wealth of vineyard options and picks to choose from in the making of our Chardonnays in 2022, and quality was excellent across the board.
We individually fermented parcels selected from four separate vineyards across the region, ranging between 850 to 1000m ASL. Each pick was handpicked and treated gently in winery, with care made to not intervene in the natural winemaking process too much.
Wild yeast ferments, minimal use of sulphur, natural malolactic fermentation, zero use of fining agents or winemaking additives – all these processes were utilised to express the terroir of each site and of the vintage. The RIKARD (blue label) Chardonnay was then made from a selection of these different vineyard parcels which we thought best suited the style of the label. Slightly warmer sites, later, riper picks, yellow fruited clones of Chardonnay and components with good phenolic structure.
Reviews
“Light-mid straw colour with a honey note on top of waxy/lees and oatmeal aromas, the palate rich and full of flavour, yet refined. Texturally smooth and fine with sweet fruit and a buttery note, freshening acidity cleansing and lengthening the finish. Delicious wine.”
95/100
– Huon Hooke for The Real Review 2023
If only it wasn’t 9am at the time… Sigh. Check this beauty out.Grown at 860 metres above, the fruit was whole bunch pressed, barrel fermented (25% new French) and spent time on lees for 10 months. Captivating scents of Allen’s milk bottles – open a packet and you’ll know what I mean. Awash with white fleshed stonefruit ably supported by nougat and creme caramel. A little fuller and riper, the drive and presence sends the taste buds into a spin. The length and width cap things off perfectly. Great stuff!
Drink to eight years.
93/100
– Steve Leszczynski for QWine
