Trinity Hill Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay 2017
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Suckling
James -
Parker
Robert
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
An excellent partner with white meats and seafood dishes.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
There’s a very fresh and attractive style to this lemon, pear and grilled-almond chardonnay with a very textural and layered feel to the palate. Such good depth and drive here. Drink now. Screw cap.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
All barrel-fermented in 50% new French oak puncheons (500-liter barrels), the 2017 Gimblett Gravels Chardonnay hints at struck match on the nose, followed by scents of toasted nuts and ripe peaches. It's medium to full-bodied, with a plump, silky mouthfeel and a harmonious mixing of flavors some might call seamless. Clean, citrusy notes mark the long finish.
Trinity hill’s story began in 1987 when Winemaker John Hancock met Robert and Robyn Wilson in their London restaurant Bleeding Heart. Over a bottle of John’s award-winning Chardonnay, the concept of a Hawke’s Bay winery was born. They were convinced they could produce world-class wines in this region of New Zealand.
They also recognized the outstanding potential of Hawkes Bay’s Gimblett Gravels winegrowing district and in 1993 Trinity Hill became one of the region’s early pioneers, planting grape vines on a barren plot on the former bed of the Ngaruroro River. This 18-hectare vineyard is now known as the Gimblett Estate Vineyard. By 2001, The Gimblett Gravels Winegrowers Association was set up with 34 wineries and winegrowers from a “terroir”-defined area of the old Ngaruroro Riverbed. Trinity Hill was and remains a founding member.
Trinity Hill has superb vineyard sites and the winemaking skills to ensure that they can achieve their aims of crafting some of the world’s great wines. A philosophy of “Quality rather than Quantity” is important. Controlled yields ensure the intensity of flavor and elegant styles for which Trinity Hill is renowned.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
An eclectic region on the east coast of the North Island, Hawkes Bay extends from wide, fertile, coastal plains, inland, to the coast range, whose peaks reach as high as 5,300 feet. While the flatter areas were historically more popular because they are easier to cultivate, their alluvial soils can be too fertile for vines. In the late 20th century, the drive for quality led growers to the hills where soils are free-draining, limestone-rich and more suited to producing high quality wines.
Over the passing of time, the old Ngaruroro River laid down deep, gravelly beds, which were subsequently exposed after a huge flood in the 1860’s. In the 1980s growers identified this stretch, which continues for approximately 800 ha, and named it the Gimblett Gravels. The zone has proven to be ideal for the production of excellent red wines, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.
Today the area takes well-earned recognition for its Bordeaux blends and other reds. Expressive of intense stewed red and black berry with gentle herbaceous characters, Gimblett Gravels wines are suggestive of their cool climate origin, and on par with other top-notch Bordeaux blends around the globe.
Chardonnay is the top white grape in Hawkes Bay, making elegant wines, strong in stone fruit character. Sauvignon blanc comes in close behind, notable for its tropical, fruit forward qualities.