Mt Difficulty Long Gully Chenin Blanc 2023
Tasting Notes
Mt Difficulty Long Gully Chenin Blanc 2023 has an exotic nose of mango, guava and pink grapefruit with a hint of floral honey. A succulent and juicy palate with a ripe citrus fruit core, gooseberry and notes of lanolin. The palate is long and vibrant with the residual sugar and high varietal acidity matching well on the finish.
CELLARING POTENTIAL
Mt Difficulty Long Gully Chenin Blanc will improve for 5 years given optimal cellaring conditions.
Vintage Notes
VINTAGE 2023
The 2023 growing season in Central Otago was vastly different to the rest of the country. We came out of a mild, wet winter to a warm and unusually still spring which meant strong shoot growth and fruit set. Post flowering, the summer heat increased, and Cromwell experienced it’s hottest January on record. We started picking in the middle of March however, a blast of cold weather from the south during the first week of April put a welcome handbrake on ripening which meant the majority of our grapes developed more flavour and tannin ripeness. We finished harvesting in mid-May, making it a longer vintage with excellent quality.
WINEMAKING CONSIDERATIONS
The fruit was hand-picked from the Long Gully vineyard. The juice was handled in a reductive fashion throughout processing. The wine was racked clean and fermented with indigenous yeast to retain the purity of the Chenin Blanc fruit. The warmer season, with slightly lower acidities, dictated the style in which we made the wine, resulting in a medium dry style. The ferment was stopped by chilling when sugar acid balance was obtained. The wine was filtered but not fined.
Alc. 12.5% T/A 7.3gL pH 3.23 Residual Sugar 26gL
