2022 Museum Chardonnays Six Pack

The 2022 growing season in the Denmark subregion of the Great Southern delivered ideal conditions with good rainfall over winter, while spring was relatively dry and summer slightly cooler than usual. Even temperature days and cold nights helped to retain the natural acidity in the fruit while the slower ripening period allowed for full flavours to develop.

‘The Vivienne’ Chardonnay aims to capture the essence of our Denmark chardonnay vineyard from multiple perspectives. The chardonnay fruit for the 2022 vintage was harvested by hand in three separate picks from mid-March to 1 April 2022, with an average baumé of 12.0 across the three harvests.

Each parcel of fruit was chilled overnight, before whole bunch pressing direct to new and seasoned French barriques, for fermentation on full solids by natural yeasts. The wine was allowed to mature on lees without sulphur for approximately 5 months. The 2022 vintage produced a slightly more restrained style, so we allowed for a little more malolactic fermentation to occur than normal to build mouthfeel and weight. The wine was matured for over 10 months in oak before being prepared for bottling. It was bottled on 28 February 2023 and rested in bottle for at least 24 months to allow for bottle age and secondary characters to start to develop.

Chardonnay is extremely well suited to the cool climate environment of the Great Southern wine region. Chardonnay from the vineyard sites in this part of Western Australia tend to ripen slowly, developing complex flavours while also retaining an elegant natural acidity which provides for a lovely balance between richness and vibrancy.

The 2022 season brought about a warm spring which resulted in a good start to the ripening season. Even temperature days and cool nights helped to retain the natural acidity in the fruit while full flavours developed.

The 2022 chardonnay fruit was harvested in three parcels on 12th, 23rd and 26th March 2022. In each instance the fruit was chilled overnight and then fermented in approximately 25% new and 75% one year old Burgundian oak barriques. The chardonnay barrels were lees stirred weekly for four months and then left to settle in barrel for a further four months before being prepared for bottling.

We were able to access some small parcels of chardonnay fruit during vintage 2022 which displayed such intensity of flavour that we earmarked them for a one-off Small Batch collection wine. The fruit deserved special treatment to allow the flavours full expression in a bolder, more textural style to shine through.

Harvested in March 2022 at optimal flavour for a rich bold textured Chardonnay, the fruit was picked and chilled overnight. The juice was pressed directly into new 225L Burgundian oak barriques on full solids, for wild fermentation. Malolactic fermentation initiated in the barrels with the lees stirred for 5 months before final barrel selection and then bottling. Our aim is to create a style which captures the texture, fruit richness and viscosity of an ‘old school’ chardonnay while carefully balancing this with the natural acidity of the fruit.