2013 Journey Yarra Valley Chardonnay
Journey is the love child of Damien North, Sommelier turned winemaker and he really has taken a journey around the world to reach the Yarra Valley and the three wines he produces under his label; Chardonnay , Pinot Noir and Shiraz. All have been sourced from high quality growers and well established vineyards and his wines are only sold through fine dining restaurants. As you can imagine with this background, the sommeliers in our major cities just love his story and love his wines, which thankfully are even better than the story behind the label.
The wine is sourced from three vineyards in the Yarra Valley, all planted to different clones. The whole-bunch fruit was pressed while cool. The juice settled for around 18 hours before racking to barrel with high solids content. Fermentation with wild yeast took place in 25% new French 500 litre puncheons, with the remainder in one and two year old French puncheons and older French barriques.
Once fermentation was complete the wine was sulphured immediately with no malolactic fermentation. The wine remained on yeast lees in barrel for 10 months, stirred to enhance complexity and mouth-feel only in the early stages of maturation. It was bottled in Early 2014 and really benefits from the 2 years it has been in the bottle.
This is just a beautiful wine. Engaging complexity on the nose, with melons and honeysuckle aromas, but it is on the palate where this wine really sings. Cracking acidity and minerality add texture and weight to the wine, with the flavours and palate seeming to last forever. This is my favourite drinking Chardonnay over the past 2 years.