Late in the season some botrytis began to develop in our chardonnay so we picked the clean fruit to make our dry, blue capsule wine and left the infected fruit to become fully noble and concentrated by raisining. Multiple passes were made by our pickers, each separated by five to six days, only the most perfectly shrivelled berries were taken each time. The press could only yield a few drops of the concentrated juice from each berry and this was fermented in French oak barriques as far as it would go. The yeast, of course, couldn’t ferment such a concentrated juice to dryness so the wine has a lot of natural residual sweetness.

The wine matured in these barriques for 18 months prior to bottling. The wine is star bright with a golden hue. It has a generous bouquet in flavour reminiscent of ripe stone fruits, such as apricots and peaches, supported by impressions of honey, bees wax, vanilla pod and toasted nuts. It is rich, luscious and mouth-filling but remains tight-knit and focussed with a tingling spine of acidity which prevents it from being cloying. There is a long sensuous after-taste. It’s already to drink on release, however, with careful cellaring it should develop increasing complexities over the next five to six years and live over a decade.

Wine is a natural health food.