UNKEL LUTA ECHOES CHARDONNAY 2022

‘Luta’, derived from Lutum, Latin for clay – pays reference to the Moutere clays of which the grapes are grown.

These wines are made from grapes harvested in the 2022 vintage and are a selection of barrels that we believe are the most honest and pure expression of the sites. These wines are aged for longer at every step, from barrel to tank and again in the bottle prior to release. Limited quantities available.

Winery notes (2022 Vintage)
"The fruit for this wine was whole-bunch pressed and settled overnight before being racked to and fermented in old Puncheons. Aged for 10 months, then racked to stainless steel where it was aged for a further 6 months before being bottled in January 2023.

Lively aromatics of lime, apricots and cream. Textural and creamy, with a lively acidity and a prominent line of salivating salinity running throughout the palate."

93/100 David Walker Bell, WineFolio.co.nz, October 2025 (2022 Vintage)
"A Chardonnay from the Moutere region of Nelson/Tasman. A pale golden-green colour in the glass. Perfumed with white peach, grapefruit, lemon, fennel, cashew nut, apple and smoky incense. Quite lean and tight in the palate, with zesty acidity matched to a crushed-shell minerality that is quite crunchy and ‘al dente’. Plenty of energy and drive. Further in, there’s more juice and texture that also has a little tannin adding an oatmeal, brioche character. The finish is crisply dry with good length."

Reviews for previous vintages below…

93/100 Mike Bennie, The Wine Front, February 2023 (2020 Vintage)
"Smoky, struck match and crushed rock scents over lime, just-ripe peach, green apple. The palate is skittish in the best sense, lively, tight, crisp and then falls into a juiciness and stony finish. It’s got strong smoky things going, reduction here, but the crunch and drive of the wine is all about tightly round, zesty chardonnay fruit at a leaner end of the spectrum despite that juicy element. You’ll have to come at it with reductive characters in mind, but this marries fruit and that well."