Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay, Piccadilly Valley

Description

Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard 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 grapes for the Tapanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay were hand harvested into shallow trays and cooled to 2ºC in the cold room at Tapanappa Winery, adjacent to the vineyard. Whole bunches of Tiers Chardonnay were tipped from the trays into the Willmes Merlin airbag press. The juice was gently pressed from the bunches, into a settling tank. After a short gravity settling the partially clarified juice and its fluffy lees were racked to French Vosges oak barriques, 33% new and the balance 1st and 2nd use. The Tiers Chardonnay was seeded with Tapanappa’s own yeast culture and allowed to ferment in the cool air temperature of the Piccadilly Valley autumn. None of the 2018 Tiers Old Chardonnay went through malo-lactic fermentation because of the warm vintage and the whole was allowed to sit on full fermentation lees until clear racking in January of 2019.

Bottled in March 2019. Only 575 dozen grown and made.