Shaw + Smith M3 Chardonnay / 2022 / 375mL

Description:

The Shaw + Smith M3 Chardonnay aims for elegance, restraint and the ability to age. Acid is bright and there's generosity of flavour.

Typically it shows white flowers, citrus, and nectarine notes.

The 2021 vintage was one of the best on record.

Ripe and healthy fruit resulted in a beautifully balanced M3, with great flavours, and fresh acidity right through to the long finish.

Vinification:

Hand picked and whole bunch pressed. Fermented and matured on lees in French oak barriques and puncheons.

Season:

The growing season for the 2021 vintage was terrific, a joy after the traumas of 2020.

Soaking winter rains gave us plenty of moisture in the soil, and that flowed into healthy crops.

The summer was mild, slow ripening, with lots of flavour.

Source:

From Piccadilly, Lobethal and the Shaw + Smith Lenswood Vineyard, at 455–500 metres elevation.

Undulating with east and west facing aspects, the soils are brown loams over clay with broken shale on the ridges.

The vineyard was planted in 1999.

Vineyards:

Vineyards: Shaw + Smith own three vineyards in the Adelaide Hills, at Balhannah, Lenswood and Piccadilly, totalling 59 hectares.

The vineyards are planted to varieties that perform particularly well in the region, namely Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Shiraz.