Bilancia Two Terraces Chardonnay 2024

Bilancia Two Terraces Chardonnay 2024

Overlooking the Ngaruroro River and inland from the Heretaunga Plains the vineyard sits on the Mangatahi terraces, shaped by the Ngaruroro River approximately 15,000 years ago.

The soils here are a silt/sand loam running to depths of 20-40cm and were laid down by the river's ancient flows, along with windblown loess and some volcanic influence from the North Island's Central Plateau.

The fruit was 100% hand-picked, then whole bunch pressed to French oak barriques for fermentation. The wine was fermented with indigenous yeast and then spent 11 months in oak prior to bottling; there was no fining or cold stabilisation. 

The 2024 Two Terraces Vineyard Chardonnay is spicy and fulsome, from relatively young vines of Clone 548. This is a new single-vineyard wine from the Two Terraces vineyard, "and four single-vineyard Chardonnays is probably about right," says Winemaker Warren Gibson. The wine is textural and abundantly phenolic, with loads of fruit here—peach, pear, apple, licorice and white pepper. The wine has partially (that is, half the barrels) gone through malolactic fermentation, and it has a nutty, creamy character that works very well. This is more opulent in style than the Kaikora Vineyard Chardonnay, but the acidity remains taut and saline, providing freshness and detail to the fruit and an extra layer of framework. This is a great wine. 94 Points - Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate