D'Arenberg Olive Grove Chardonnay 1998

The appearance is pale with a brilliant straw colour and clear hue. The aromas are fresh, tight and light. The dominating notes are of melted butter and popcorn, white peach stones and nectarines. As the wine opens there is a mix of ripe red apple, spices, cinnamon and citrus, with a hint of oak.



The palate is soft and very refreshing though its weight is quite deceptive. With characters of green melon rind, ripe fig and ripe apple, it has a moderate level of concentration, depth and persistence to the finish. The level of fine acidity suggested by the noticeable mineral notes really suppresses the level of ripeness, but also suggests the wine needs time to develop.



This is a lovely dry, medium bodied wine that is most enjoyable now and will continue to develop further complex fruit and bottle age characters over the next 8 to 10 years from release.

2007 will be remembered as the earliest start to vintage ever due to extreme drought conditions not seen for decades. Overall winter rainfalls were a third of what we normally receive. The extremely dry conditions and cold spring temperatures leading up to the growing season affected the vines by producing very short shoot length, which resulted in reduced bunch size, bunch weights and berry size. For this reason we increased our selection of premium Adelaide Hills fruit from growers as it is a significantly cooler climate region due to its altitude. The fruit from the Hills was beautifully balanced with great flavour definition and levels of natural acidity from what would be regarded as a warmer than expected year, compared to McLaren Vale. Just as vintage was to commence we experienced a 50mm downpour which created considerable fruit splitting on many of our vineyards which again reduced yield. This rain saved the vintage as it provided enough moisture in the ground to set the vines up for a stress free period of final ripening.

Under the supervision of chief winemaker Chester Osborn, the fruit from each vineyard was kept separate, and once crushed, free run juice was cold soaked on its skins at 2€C for up to 20 hours prior to basket pressing and fermentation.

Fermentation was undertaken where a third of the total wine was fermented on its full solids. Half of the total blend was fermented in barrel from periods of 4 weeks to 7 months in a combination of various oaks. The balance was fermented in tank to retain fresh fruit characters and acidity. Once fermentation was complete, blending was undertaken and then bottled fresh to retain the wine's vibrancy and characteristics.

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