50% stainless steel fermented and aged. Aromas of Asian pear, nutmeg, caramel, orange zest, and roasted almonds. Nine months of gross lees contact give a rich, complex texture and a classic Okanagan mineral streak on the palate. Well integrated flavours of popcorn, wet stone and rich ripe fruit. 1,345 cases.
Coolshanagh is a celebrated vineyard located north of Naramata between what was the ancient west coast of North America and Okanagan Mountain. Distinct regional flavours emerge from this fertile calcium carbonate loaded soil comprised of fractured glacial bedrock.
DETAILED TASTING NOTES
As determined by Parra & the winemaking team, each of the four pick blocks of Chardonnay grapes were hand-picked and separated based on must flavor, vineyard ripeness and site topography, as well as many other factors were all taken into consideration. The picking took place over 4 days in October 20018. Each pick block was whole cluster pressed separately to optimally express each unique vineyard location. The first 1000 liters of free run juice from each of the four pressings was separated out to new 500 liter oak puncheons to ferment, the remaining free run must was blended in concrete tulip tanks to ferment together and the remaining pressing juice was sent to stainless steel tank to ferment together. The four free run batches of wine in barrel were kept separate to monitor each pick blocks terroir and help dial in future winemaking decisions for the vineyard. After 9 months, 6 barrels were separated and blended together with the free run wine from the concrete tulip tank and the stainless steel tank.
The wine underwent minimal handling with lees stirring every month in each vessel and went to bottling without fining. The idea was to create many separate parts that were uniquely represented in the whole wine. Alone, the parts showed the different vineyard picks but together the entire vineyard and all its nuances are brought into balance. This new world Chardonnay was 25% new French oak barrel fermented and aged, 25% concrete tank fermented and aged and 50% stainless steel fermented and aged. The resulting blend of the 6 separate small batches leads to aromas of Asian pears with nuances of nutmeg, caramel, orange zest, and roasted almonds. 9 months of gross lees contact in barrel and tanks lends to the wine a rich complex texture and combines richness and power with classical old world elegance. This wine has a classic Okanagan mineral streak on the palate and is well integrated with flavours of popcorn, wet stone and rich ripe fruit flavors.
PH 3.52 | TA 5.7 | RS 1.4 | ALC 13.5% WINEMAKER: Steve Latchford, Okanagan Crush Pad
