Howard Park Miamup Chardonnay 75cl 2020

Margaret River soils are predominantly deep, well-drained, red gravelly loams. Running down the middle of the region is the Leeuwin-Naturaliste ridge, which connects Cape Naturaliste to the north and Cape Leeuwin to the south. The granite bedrock of the ridge is 150–600 million years old, layered in places with two-million-year-old limestone. Over time, the ridge has created a complex network of gneiss, schist and granite-based soils, the oldest in the world. These soils are low in nutrients, resulting in low vigour in the vineyard – ideal for producing high-quality grapes.

In the cool and temperate climate of the South West of Western Australia, the winter of 2019 gave less than average rainfall, and an expectation that yields from the 2020 vintage would be low. As the earth gradually faced more to the sun, spring uncoiled its impulsive nature, followed by a temperate warm, dry summer - setting the stage for a promising outcome. With veraison came the flowering of the native marri blossoms to avert the attention of our indigenous resident bird population away from the fruit. Such an event negates one annoyance at least. The middle autumnal period continued to be dry, with a mild to warm temperature which began to impact vintage in early March as all varieties readied for an early harvest. Our intake was regular and moderated with a good progression from early whites to late reds; boasting dry, warm conditions throughout. 2020 is yet another vintage from Western Australia with little complaint as we empathised with our eastern state colleagues, so ravaged by wild fires. In summary, the vintage is very good yet slow to show its true potential. Early varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay show good varietal purity, with subtle, lasting flavours and the later reds such as Shiraz show good depth of flavour, good perfume, fine tannin and poise.

All of the individual vineyards that contribute to Miamup Chardonnay are vinified separately. Each batch is hand-picked at between 12.2 to 12.5 ºBe and cooled overnight before sorting and whole bunch pressing to extract the free run juice. Primary and malolactic fermentation occurs in a combination of new and older French oak. Temperature of fermentation is controlled between 18ºC to 22ºC and the lees are stirred regularly from the end of fermentation and throughout the malolactic. After 7 months in barrel, the wine was blended then fined and filtered before bottling.

After 7 months in barrel, the wine was blended then fined and filtered before bottling.