Astrolabe, Marlborough Chardonnay, 2020

Marlborough is now for its Sauvignon Blanc, and indeed, Astrolabe produces some of the best NZ SB in the world.

Winemaker Simon Waghorn is obsessed with the different microclimates of his various estates (the name Astrolabe refers to this continual exploration and discovery - it's a navigational device sailors used charting Marlborough's coast).

As it turns out, his estate in the Lower Wairau Valley produces the kind of fruit we'd only see coming out of the Burgundian Grand Crus. Full of stone fruit, vanilla creaminess, and weighty texture.

The wine is then aged in French-oak barrels, lees-stirred and allowed to undergo malolactic fermentation to give structure, body and complexity.