2022 Oakey Creek Vineyard Chardonnay

First Release

Our inaugural Chardonnay release from the Oakey Creek Vineyard, following the purchase of this 40Ha property in mid-2021 from the Drayton family. The fruit for this wine is sourced from a small 2.68Ha parcel which is on a gentle south-east facing slope. This is situated slightly above the Semillon that we have taken from the site over the past three decades, which is all on the alluvial Oakey Creek flats. We still receive many enquiries about our Graveyard Vineyard Chardonnay, last made in 2004, so we continue the tradition of a single vineyard Hunter Valley Chardonnay. A season with many similarities to 2021 but overall of higher quality. La Nina once again made for a cool, wet season albeit tempered by consistent breeze, which kept the canopy dry and disease at bay. Pokolbin had reached its annual rainfall by the end of November, with it being the wettest November on record. We ended up receiving 956mm for 2021. One of the latest harvests in the Hunter in many years, with the last Chardonnay not being picked until the 30th of January. Picking was conducted under cool, cloudy skies.