Cloudy Bay Chardonnay

Cloudy Bay Chardonnay is a barrel-aged white wine made by the Cloudy Bay winery on South Island (New Zealand) with the Chardonnay variety. Founded in 1985, Cloudy Bay was one of the first wineries established in the Wairau Valley in Marlborough, at the northern end of New Zealand’s South Island. Until then nobody knew about its winemaking potential, but David Hohnen, the founder, chose this area which is now known as one of the best wine regions in the world. The name, Cloudy Bay, comes from the name Captain Cook gave this place when he discovered it in 1770. Cloudy Bay now belongs to the luxury French group LVMH and is known around the world for their pure and intense premium wines. Cloudy Bay Chardonnay comes from a total of 76 plots located in the Wairau Valley. These are vines planted in deep soils of gravel, alluvial gravel and clay with great drainage and very rich in nutrients. Being the country’s main wine region, it enjoys the perfect climate for vine growing, with hot days and cold nights. They use sustainable agriculture, limiting production and harvesting manually at the optimum point of ripeness. When the Cloudy Bay Chardonnay grapes reach the winery, they are selected, destemmed and gently pressed. The resulting must is transferred to French oak barrels, 15% of which are new, and fermentation begins at a controlled temperature. The wine then rests for 11 months before being mixed, and 27% undergoes malolactic fermentation. Cloudy Bay Chardonnay is a single-variety Chardonnay wine that is the perfect introduction to astral whites. Bright fruit intensity with balanced acidity.