Tony Bish, Skin in The Game Chardonnay 2019, Hawke's Bay New Zealand

This is Tony Bish's 'consumer friendly' version of orange (skin contact) chardonnay. Tony writes  "I have tried many ‘Orange’ wines that have been fermented on skins and left for long periods to age on skins, and to be honest, I usually find them excessively phenolic, bitter and often oxidative. So I have tried a very different approach! Handpicked Chardonnay was gentle de-stemmed through a specialist Socma destemmer, resulting in whole berries and no stems. We then foot crushed the berries before fermenting in an open top fermenter in a chilled barrel room. As soon as the ferment was dry, we transferred the young wine to a concrete egg for 11 months maturation."

A rather lovely bouquet with aromas of fresh citrus and mineral, apple and white peach. There’s a definitive scent of white chalk or white stone that reminds us of a fresh Burgundy. That said this is all NZ with its purity, texture and flavour. Flavours on the palate reflect the nose with apple and citrus, white stone fruit then a lees derived texture driving the weight and finish.