Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard 1.5M Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley

Description

Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard 1.5M Chardonnay is an Australian wine produced from grapes grown in the Piccadilly Valley sub-region of Adelaide Hills.

Tapanappa wines was founded in 2002 and was the coming together of three well-known wine families: Brian and Ann Croser of Australia, the Bollinger family of Champagne and the Cazes family of Lynch Bages in Pauillac. The Croser family have owned the estate since 2014 and today the estate is run by Brian Croser’s son in law and daughter, Xavier Bizot and Lucy Croser. The estate comprised three consists of three distinguished vineyard sites. The Tiers Vineyard, which was planted with Chardonnay in 1979, the Whalebone Vineyard planted with Cabernet varieties in 1974 and the Foggy Hill Vineyard planted with Dijon clones on Pinot Noir rootstocks in 2003.

The Tiers Vineyard is located in the coolest and wettest location in South Australia, the Piccadilly Valley. It is perfectly suited to Chardonnay being a closely matched homo-clime of Burgundy and especially the southern end of the Cotes de Beaune where the great Montrachets and Mersault Chardonnays are grown.

The 100% Chardonnay grapes for the Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard 1.5M Chardonnay are harvested by hand and chilled in trays in the winery’s cold-room to 2C. The cold grapes were then tipped into gentle air-bag presses and the whole fruit pressed juice was pumped to tank before being gravitated to French oak barriques (one third new) for fermentation. The fermentation lasted two months in the cool autumn conditions. The wine was barrel aged on full lees for 2 or 3 months until it was clear racked from barrique and bottled.