Te Awanga 'The Loom' Reserve Chardonnay 2022

Te Awanga is a special piece of dirt.

Planted 25 years ago by a group of friends in one of Hawke’s Bay’s oldest wine growing areas, they dreamed of making the region’s greatest wines. We’re still working on that, but believe our vineyard by the coast truly captures something unique. Not only the physical home of our much-loved cellar door by the sea, Te Awanga Estate is a range of single estate wines that are rich, mouth-filling and long-lived.

Te Awanga is a sleepy seaside village. There’s a lot of reasons why it was first settled in the 1800’s, but we’re picking that one of them was probably not that there’s a great point break. A break which works particularly well when the seas are heavy and easterly. In local parlance, ‘the loom’ is the name given to the best wave of the day.

Our Loom Chardonnay is simply our very best. Grapes were hand harvested and whole bunch pressed to ensure juice was fine, retained a low pH and brightness. We ran the juice straight to barrel (all French oak barriques, of which around 40% were new) without settling, attempting to create complexity and texture in doing so. The wine was fermented wild and left on wild yeast lees for ten months before it was blended ahead of bottling.

A typical coastal Chardonnay with citrus and stone-fruit aromas combined with a lovely biscotti and spice complexity. On the palate, it’s fleshy and textural with a little minerality and tightness which promises a long life and gathering complexity. 13.5% ABV.

5 STARS (95/100) - Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, Feb 2022