LVDO Forreston Chardonnay Sauvignon 2023

Mineral | Saline | Linear

Ingredients: Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, 30 ppm sulphites.

Vegan, unfined and unfiltered.

2023 Vintage
Forreston, Adelaide Hills
12% ABV
750 mL

70% Chardonnay and 30% Sauvignon Blanc from the spectacular Lansdowne vineyard in the Adelaide Hills.
My purpose with this wine was to make a fully flavoured yet mineral and saline white wine based on an ever-popular blend in Central-East Europe (Hungary, Australia, Slovenia, North-East Italy....). It's also a nod to my home country, Hungary. The inclusion of Sauvignon Blanc also adds that lifted herbal freshness I really love in Chablis, while the Chardonnay aged on lees brings an almond meal-like texture.
Regarding winemaking, the Chardonnay was barrel-fermented (in 12 years old American oak), the Sauvignon was tank-fermented and both aged separately for 13 months and as a blend for 2 months in ancient barrels. Rested in tank for 1 month and bottled with 30 ppm SO2.

93 points, Mike Bennie (Halliday Wine Companion)
"Slipperiness with some chalky pucker through the finish with a tactile, briny mineral core. Scents and flavours of ginger, quince, preserved lemon, rosemary and sage leaf with flickers of salt bush and white pepper. The wine is quite juicy, fleshy almost, medium-weight, but that cut of powdery chomp and the frisky, saline inlay elevate things well. It's left of centre and a little edgy in its way, but compelling drinking as a 'salty white wine'."