Babich Irongate Chardonnay 2010
We have been producing Irongate Chardonnay since 1985 and it has evolved into this richly flavoured, balanced and elegant wine. The vines from this now-famous Gimblett Gravels ‘Irongate’ vineyard are selected at pruning and crop levels are closely monitored to ensure excellent flavour concentration in the grapes (Mendoza).
Winemaker Notes
Region:
Hawke`s Bay - Gimblett Gravels
Recommended Food:
Irongate Chardonnay is an intense, richly flavoured wine and is an ideal match for rich seafood and white meat dishes. Try it with char-grilled squid and lemon butter sauce, or barbecued chicken.
Recommended Cellaring:
3-10 years
Production Notes:
In Mid- March, selected parcels of hand harvested fruit were gently whole bunch pressed. The free run was put to French oak, 25% new, for wild fermentation. After primary ferment the wine was lees stirred to add complexity and build palate weight. The wine spent just under seven months in barrel before assembly and bottling.
Technical Notes:
Alcohol: 13.0%
TA: 5g/l
pH: 3.66
Residual Sugar: 1.7g/l
Tasting Notes:
The nose is captivating and perfumed, liberally dosed with mealy notes that merge into white peach and apricot. The entry is sweet fruited and develops into a luscious and complex wine full of grapefruit, peach and cashew nut flavours. An attractive hint of vanilla biscuit can also be detected on the finely structured and layered palate. Lemon, citrus and spicy oak linger on the finish. A skillfully balanced wine.
Awards
SILVER MEDAL -Air New Zealand Wine Awards 2011
5 STARS -Raymond Chan, www.raymondchanwinereviews.co.nz, October 2011
89 POINTS -Lisa Perrotti-Brown, eRobertParker.com #197, Oct 2011
4.5 STARS -Michael Cooper, Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines 2012
4 STARS -TiZwine.com, Feb 2012
5 STARS, 94 POINTS - Sam Kim, Wine Orbit Magazine, Issue 18, www.wineorbit.co.nz , March 2012
4.5 STARS -Cuisine Magazine, May 2012
4 STARS, 90 POINTS -Bob Campbell MW, www.bobswinereviews.com, Dec, 2011
Wine Writer Reviews
"Bright light lemon-hued golden-straw colour with a pale edge. The bouquet is full with complex amalgam of aromas of ripe stonefruits, grapefruit and mealy, nutty oak, with hints of butter, toast and flint. This combines power and richness with a surprisingly stylish restraint and elegance. The flavours of ripe grapefruit, mealy, nutty, toasty oak are mouthfilling and creamy barrel-ferment and buttery elements provide a dense, weighty presence and rich texture. The palate finishes with excellent length and nutty, spicy oak flavours. A rich, full and sophisticated wine with a degree of class."
5 STARS
-Raymond Chan, www.raymondchanwinereviews.co.nz, October 2011
"Fermented in French oak, 25% new, and aged in oak for 9 months, the 2010 Irongate Chardonnay displays intense notes of apricots, peach kernels and honeydew melon over grilled baguette, toasty oak and meal. Medium full bodied, there’s a nice suggestion of creaminess to the texture countered by crisp acid."
89 POINTS
-Lisa Perrotti-Brown, eRobertParker.com #197, Oct 2011
"Babich’s flagship Chardonnay. A stylish wine, Irongate has traditionally been leaner and tighter than other top Hawke’s Bay Chardonnays, while performing well in the cellar, but the latest releases have more drink-young appeal. It is based on hand-picked fruit from the shingly Irongate Vineyard in Gimblett Road, fully barrel-fermented (about 20 per cent new), and lees-matured for up to nine months. Malolactic fermentation was rare up to the 2002, but is now a growing influence. The 2010 vintage is still a baby, with obvious potential for long-term cellaring. Weighty and creamy-textured, it has strong, ripe, citrusy, slightly spicy flavours, mealy, complex and harmonious. Open 2013+.
4.5 STARS
-Michael Cooper, Michael Cooper's Buyer's Guide to New Zealand Wines 2012
"Babich Irongate Chardonnay has long been of the finest and long lasting chardonnays around. The 2010 looks well up to standard. Tropical fruits with a whiff of smoke on the nose are overtaken by the toasty oak and stonefruit flavours in the palate. There is also an underlying citrus element which adds complexity. Rich and powerful with a lingering finish."
-TiZwine.com, Feb 2012
"As always, this is a lovely refined expression of the variety displaying citrus, white peach, cashew and subtle vanillin oak characters. The palate is concentrated and focused with silky texture and an extremely long, linear finish. Beautifully framed and structured, this youthful Chardonnay is destined to develop gradually to show greater complexity in time."
94 POINTS
5 STARS
-Sam Kim, Wine Orbit Magazine, Issue 18, www.wineorbit.co.nz, March 2012
"Fresh apple, lemon/citrus, white peach flavours with a solid seasoning of toast, bran biscuit and classy oak. Restrained and elegant wine with appealing sweet fruit balanced by fine acidity and gentle tannins. This is a classy and complex Chardonnay with good cellaring potential."
4 STARS
90 POINTS
-Bob Campbell MW, www.bobswinereviews.com, Dec, 2011
"This new addition to the proud line of Irongate chardonnays reveals its aristocratic breeding via elegant aromatics, fleshy texture and good depth of flavour. There’s a wisp of smokiness and lovely, crunchy acidity.
A wine you’d be happy to serve at any celebratory occasion."
4.5 STARS
-Cuisine Magazine, May 2012
"A hint of smoke on the nose. Palate is ripe and creamy with sweet fruit flavours of fig, melon and apricot. A hint of nuts and spice."
-WineNZ Magazine, Autumn 2012
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