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."

Reviews for the 2019 vintage below…

98/100 James Suckling (2019 Vintage)
"Fantastic aromas of ripe apple, smoke, flint and stone. Sandalwood as well. Full-bodied and very reductive with dry ice to the ripe and dried apple character. Dense and very layered, yet fresh and vivid. So long and intense. Great finish. Drink now. Screw cap."

5 Stars & 96/100 Bob Campbell MW, The Real Review, April 2022 (2019 Vintage)
"Vine age, low cropping vines, planted on their roots and winemaking techniques that are designed to build maximum flavour and complexity have produced this seriously delicious, age-worthy chardonnay.

It’s an intense and impressively textural flagship chardonnay with ripe peach, tree fruits, honey, lime zest, toasted nut and charcuterie flavours. A backbone of fine, ripe tannins helps promote a dry finish and suggests that the wine will age well for at least a decade, perhaps more."

5 Stars & 96/100 Sam Kim, Wine Orbit, March 2022 (2019 Vintage)
"A gracefully opulent chardonnay, showing grapefruit, rockmelon, vanillin oak, flint and brioche characters on the nose. The impressively concentrated palate delivers beautifully layered mouthfeel combined with creamy texture and bright acidity, finishing superbly long and expansive. At its best: now to 2034."

5 Stars Yvonne Lorkin, May 2023 (2019 Vintage)
"I love the way this wine smells of popcorn, bacon, grilled grapefruit and roasted peaches drizzled in vanilla and butterscotch sauce. It’s so fresh, energetic and vibrantly nutty. A Virtuoso chardonnay is only attempted in exceptional years, from a selection of Mat Donaldson’s best barrels produced from fruit grown by some of the oldest vines on the property. Fruit from a multi-stage, handpick was gently pressed straight to large French oak puncheons (40% new) to go through a wild ferment. The wine then matured on its lees before a natural malolactic ferment occurred the summer following harvest, and then it was further matured for another 12 months before bottling."