Moorilla Estate Praxis Chardonnay 2023

This season we again handpicked all fruit due to the inability to book a machine harvester.  After crushing we were able to juice soak the skins for 6 hours prior to pressing.  Cold settled juice was then split into two tanks where fermentation was performed using two different inoculated yeasts, both selected for their ability to enhance muscat and monoterpene aromas and flavours.  
Having had very low yields we decided to blend the 2023 Gewurztraminer into the Chardonnay Musque to help with volumes.  This blend was racked early, again to ensure freshness of aromas.  Rather than heavily fining and risking losing varietal character we blended in a very small amount of the unfermented juice.  This small amount of sugar added mid-palate weight and mouthfeel and avoided the need to heavily fine the wine.  The final blend was then stabilised and filtered before bottling July 10, 2023.