Wine Overview
Howard Park’s award winning Chardonnay is handcrafted from grapes sourced from the cool climate region of Western Australia’s Great Southern. The cool growing conditions produce highly flavoured and tightly structured Chardonnay grapes from which only the best free run juice is selected each vintage to become part of the Howard Park Chardonnay. The juice selected is placed on French oak barrels with a percentage of the barrels lees stirred for period determined each vintage to enhance the savoury textural characters. The remaining barrels are sulphured to preserve the delicate flavour and structure of the Chardonnay and to restrict the occurrence of malolactic fermentation.
The Howard Park Chardonnay is a modern style of Australian’ barrel-fermented Chardonnay: elegant, lean and sophisticated. This wine displays mineral, citric and pear fruit characters with some savoury and nutty notes from the interaction of oak and lees. The Howard Park Chardonnay will enormously reward those that are patient enough to cellar this wine. It will develop wonderful secondary characters after about a year and will drink well for five years.
Since its release in 1993 the Howard Park has impressed judges and wine writers both nationally and internationally. In 2003 it was awarded a Trophy for the Best White Wine at the Tri-National Wine Challenge, a Gold Medal in 2006 at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles and a Blue Gold Medal (Top 100 Wine) at the 2007 and 2008 Sydney International Wine Challenge. The Howard Park Chardonnay has also been listed in the Best of the Best in James Halliday’s Wine Companion 2007 and 2006 editions “…seamless and super-fine…epitome of elegance…” the Howard Park Chardonnay is truly a wine of distinction.
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Composition: |
100% Chardonnay |
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Region: |
The Great Southern |
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Technical Notes: |
There are a number of key characteristics that define the Howard Park Chardonnay year in year out. The wine is a fresh, vibrant fruit driven wine with an elegant, sophisticated, tight palate structure. It’s these characteristics that define our Chardonnay as a modern Australian barrel fermented style of Chardonnay.
The 2008/2009 growing season was preceded by below average rainfall for the winter of 08, but it was still the best winter rain for several seasons. The spring was also punctuated with rain but the wind and cooler weather did affect set in many varieties including Gin-Gin clone chardonnay. The growing season was cooler and varieties ripened later than average. However a benign end to the season saw all varieties ripen perfectly with higher natural acids and fine fruit structures.
The premium parcels of fruit for the 2009 Howard Park Chardonnay were hand picked and refrigerated overnight. The fruit was then manually sorted to eliminate any damaged berries and loaded into our press for whole bunch pressing. Only the free run juice from the press is considered for Howard Park as this is the most tightly structured and aromatic juice. The juice was then transferred directly into French oak barriques for fermentation with indigenous yeast from the vineyard allowed to complete the fermentation. A mixture of new (40%) and one and two year old (60%) French barriques is used for fermentation and maturation. The secondary malolactic fermentation is discouraged to maintain the natural backbone of acidity which is a hallmark of Howard Park Chardonnay.
Some lees stirring was employed to most batches, with the time stirring depending on the structure of each parcel of wine. A creamy texture that complemented the wine’s natural zestiness was what we were looking for.
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Tasting Notes: |
Pale straw in colour with a bright green hue on the rim of the glass of the Howard Park 2009 Chardonnay. The wine's aroma opens before you in the glass. Mineral and citrus notes lead to creamy cashews and subtle-integrated oak. Fermentation with indigenous yeast in French oak barriques and lees aging provides a creamy texture with flavours of almond meal. This texture complements the thrilling nectarine and rockmelon fruit and the crisp mineral-citrus structure. All this adds up to a contemporary sophisticated Chardonnay.
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Cellaring Notes: |
This wine will enormously reward those that are patient enough to cellar this wine. It will develop wonderful secondary characters during the next 2 to 3 years and drink well for up to 8 years.
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