Chardonnay is a variety that lends itself to a wide range of winemaking techniques. This allows our winemaking team to guide the wine through various stages of production.

Sustainably produced off two of our biodynamically run vineyards in the Southern Highlands, one with clay soils which helps preserve the crisp lively acids in the wine, and the other on thin sandy soils which help enhance the deep grapefruit and mango characters.

Harvest is typically mid to late March when the fruit is 12-13 Baume. This is when the acids are crisp and clean and the round rich fruit flavours have developed. Our chardonnay is 100% hand-picked with each batch carefully selected by our winemakers to ensure premium quality.

After harvest the grapes are de-stemmed and allowed to spend some time in the press with the skins before being pressed off. The juice is then kept lightly cloudy for the ferment which takes place in French oak. Our aim is to develop flinty funky ferment characters to complex the final wines, whilst retaining fresh varietal fruit flavours.

Once fermentation has been completed we age the wines in French oak for 12-18 months. Each barrel is mixed once a month. Specific malolactic cultures are selected and 100% of the barrels undergo malolactic fermentation. The process develops a rich buttery roundness to the final wine, which is balanced beautifully with the crisp acids and intense fresh fruits created by the cool climate of the Southern Highlands.  

A perfect balance between vanilla, butter, grapefruit, mango and creamy patisseries. The Tractorless Chardonnay is a throwback to the classic buttery oaky Chardonnays of the 80s and 90s, with a balanced modern-age freshness.

Tractorless Vineyard deliberately holds back this wine for at least 12 months to ensure that its drinking fantastically upon release. However, the rich characters of this wine and strong acid structure will reward patient cellaring.

Rich seafood, lobster, crab and lightly smoked or buttery pan-fried salmon.