Freedom of the Press Chardonnay

Bottle notes

Limited 1st release.

A classic chardonnay from a ripe vintage. A lovely gold colour, with notes of wild flowers, tangerine, citrus, stone and honey. It has a light buttery quality that comes with gentle oak ageing in mellow old barrels, lees contact, and malolactic fermentation. It has great texture on the palate, and the alcohol of 13% is just the right body to hang the flavours on. Decent - but not overbearing - acidity makes it a good food match, and a wine to age.

And age it will. Although drinking splendidly now it is going to be spectacular in 2 years or so. So we are releasing 500 bottles now, and holding the other 500 for a year or two’s time- it would be a shame to have sold it all before it reaches peak. The second release will be priced somewhat higher than this first.

13%. 75cl bottle. Critic’s review, points and further details below.

Review from Dr Jamie Goode, www.wineanorak.com @drjamiegoode

“This is complex and mineral, with a finely spiced thread as well as keen acidity and crystalline lemony fruit. There’s lots of flavour here: pear, lemon, apple and even a touch of hazelnut, with a nice tapering finish. Really stylish and nicely poised, showing good complexity. 93 points”

More detail. 

The fruit was picked in the Crouch valley, Essex in mid October 2020 at around 93 oesechler (sugar level) - which is very ripe for English chardonnay. Four different clones were included in the batch, creating a complex profile. After a gentle press the wine was fermented in old oak using a variety of yeasts (again - for complexity) and matured on its lees for 11 months (contributing to a rich mouth feel), during which time malolactic fermentation converted sharper malic acid to the softer lactic acid. In the early months the wine was batonnaged (stirred with its lees) every week, and this reduced to once a month in spring. The wine was filtered before bottling to ensure stable long-term bottle ageing. It is closed with a Diam 5 cork, promising to be cork-taint free and having a consistent oxygen transfer rate for predictable long term cellar ageing.