PEGASUS BAY VIRTUOSO CHARDONNAY 2020

The top Chardonnay produced from Pegasus Bay's oldest Mendoza clone vines (30+ years). This is a wine of considerable power and intensity and full of the usual Pegasus Bay personality.

Winery notes (2020 Vintage)
"Virtuoso is part of our reserve series which we only make in exceptional years, provided it does not compromise the quality of our estate wines. It is a selection from the best barrels, coming from some of the oldest plantings in the vineyard.

Settled weather over flowering provided a healthy fruit set, which was then thinned back to desired levels. The ensuing summer was dry with very little rain, resulting in perfectly ripened small berries full of intense flavour and concentration. Thankfully, our harvest was able to proceed during the Covid-19 lockdown, and an unbroken autumn full of warm days meant the fruit was picked at its optimum ripeness.

Shimmering bright lemon in colour, the nose is multi faceted, fruit driven yet intriguingly savoury. Impressions of grapefruit, grilled pineapple, and melon, nestled on an underlay of smoky bacon, buttered popcorn, and pie crust, fused with hazelnuts, creamy caramel, and a puff of gunpowder. In the mouth it is vibrant and energised, with sophisticated concentration and exhilarating acidity combining to create a formidable tension. Strapping, yet oozing with finesse, it accelerates towards a long, racy finish."

5 Stars & 97/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, August 2024 (2020 Vintage)
"Immensely complex and seductive, the bouquet shows mango, apricot, baked fig, and roasted hazelnut aromas with a lovely flinty nuance. The concentrated palate displays outstanding weight and depth, wonderfully supported by creamy mouthfeel and brilliantly pitched acidity. Multi-layered and engaging with a prolonged, gratifying finish. At its best: now to 2035."

Rated Outstanding & 96/100 Cameron Douglas MS, September 2024 (2020 Vintage)
"A fantastic bouquet with power in and intensity, with a core of roasted stone fruits and oak, baked apple and layers of wood spice and wood smoke. As the wine opens pout i glass these ideas intensity and develop. Full bodied, dry, and very intense, flavours mirror the bouquet with stone fruits and lemon, some quince and wood spices all vying for attention on the palate. Medium+ acidity, fine wood tannins frame the wine beautifully. Balanced and well made, a wine that is ready enjoy from today and through 2033+."

5 Stars Michael Cooper (2020 Vintage)
"Blended from the 'best barrels', this wine is estate-grown and hand-harvested from vines over 30 years old at Waipara, in North Canterbury. Fermented with indigenous yeasts, it is matured on its yeast lees for 10 months to a year in French oak puncheons, and bottle-aged prior to its release. The 2020 vintage is bright, light yellow/green, with a fragrant, complex, slightly smoky and 'funky' bouquet. Weighty and savoury, it has rich, vigorous, stonefruit flavours, finely integrated oak, and a dry, tightly structured finish. An elegant, distinctly cool-climate style, it's well worth cellaring."

Rated Excellent, Mark Henderson, Otago Daily Times, October 2024 (2020 Vintage)
"Signature PB powerful struck match & bonfire embers lead, parting to reveal ripe peach, spices and honeyed brioche, grilled nuts later. Undoubted power, intensity and creaminess once it sheds some of those reductive notes, picking up orange zest, toffee and spice. Tasted over several hours the palate was simply superb later in the day, so perhaps decant this and let it breathe."