Farmers Leap Chardonnay, Padthaway

Description

Farmers Leap Chardonnay is a white wine from the Padthaway wine-growing region of Australia.

Farmers Leap Wines was established by third generation Padthaway farmers Scott Longbottom and Cheryl Merrett. They began planting vines in Padthaway in 1995 on the family property. Today there are plantings, mainly, of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Merlot. To begin with most of the fruit was sold on to other wine producers but, as time has gone by, and with increased success of the Farmers Leap label, more and more fruit is destined for their own label. Today there are over 400 hectares of vineyards planted and farmed alongside the family’s sheep, cattle and onion crops.

The Padthaway wine-growing region is located in the inland centre of the Limestone Coast in South Australia some 155 miles to the south of Adelaide. The climate here is Mediterranean and the soils are rich, terra rossa over limestone (similar to Coonawarra to south). The region is probably best known for red wine production and Padthaway Shiraz has always been particularly well-regarded.

The fruit for the Farmers Leap Chardonnay is sourced from two sites, both on loamy soil over limestone, but of different ages, and one block is about 9km further south than the other, and they provide different characters to add complexity to the wine. The wine was matured in barriques for 7 months and regularly lees stirred to add texture. Matured in 20% new French barriques with the
remainder in older French barrels.