2020 Field of Fire Chardonnay
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Tasting notes
The 2020 Field Of Fire Chardonnay is flinty and spiced, layered with curry leaf, tobacco, brine, preserved citrus rind and hints of crushed nuts. In the mouth, the wine is rich and undulating and saturating. The fruit is wrapped around a core of scintillating acidity—it really penetrates the palate and touches the soul. It plays a defibrillation role within the fruit. We all have different preferences in wine, but I am absolutely turned on by the fruit and acid interplay here. Thrilling. Detailed. Rich. Bunch weights can be almost double the Lion's Tooth bunches. I asked Steve Smith, MW, “How big is big?” A laugh, in response, then he says, "Well, we get clone 95 bunches coming in sometimes at 120 grams (maximum) and Mendoza between 50- and 80-gram bunches.” Winemaker Huw Kimsch explains, “The bunches are about 30% or more smaller in the Lion's Tooth Vineyard.” The wine spent 22 months in barrel and four months in tank prior to bottling. Due to wild ferments, it struggled to get through full malolactic fermentation. This is a wonderful thing, I feel. It's an exciting drink. The pH is around three, total acidity is around eight. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
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Average Score
Julia Harding MW, jancisrobinson.com
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
In its youth, the 2020 Field of Fire is raw and taut, its firm acidity making it a little less easy to warm to at this stage compared with the more open 2019. The pH of the wines is very low and having been wild fermented, it took an age to finally finish its fermentation and only partially completed the malolactic conversion. That tang and tightness provides a corset, reining in what really wants to be a round, fleshy wine into a line. Almond meal flavors, characteristic of the long fermentation, combine with a lemon tang that reminds me of a good Italian dry white, with a briny quality on the finish. You need to really like acid and very cool climate wines, but if you do, this will float your boat.
Botanicals collection. Waikari vineyard. Fermented with ‘vineyard yeast’, aged in French oak barrels for 20 months on lees, then in tank on light lees for 6 months before bottling unfined and unfiltered Deep, slightly orangey gold. Rich old-fashioned Meursault – dead ringer! Very, very different from the 2019. Appetisingly savoury on the end. (JR)
Planted between 2000 and 2002 at the very high density of 11,111 vines/ha and farmed biodynamically since inception. A tiny, south-east-facing block with slightly variable soils, graduating from top to bottom on the slope, through primarily shallow (10–15 cm) glauconitic clays over chalky limestone; 20–25% clay, 5–10% active lime . Hand-harvested 12 April 2020. Foot-stomped and whole-bunch pressed. Spontaneous ferment in older French oak barrels and just one new barrel (less than 15%). 20 months on lees in barrel. Then aged on light lees for 6 months in stainless steel prior to being bottled unfined and unfiltered in June 2022. TA 8.9 g/l, pH 3.07. Vegan-friendly. Just 275 cases of 6 produced. Director Steve Smith MW describes this as the ‘coolest vineyard for Chardonnay in the world’, in Waikari in the foothills of the southern Alps. Limey citrus on the nose. Pithy grapefruit. Seems less flinty than the Springs Vineyard Chardonnay and more linear. Some green fruits. High acid and more grapefruit on the palate, piercing freshness and leaner than I expected. Really, really tightly wound. Pure, savoury, salty and long but with lovely crisp citrus fruit. Very lightly toasty, very lightly flinty, but not extreme. Creamy. Breadth comes from the toasty character not from fruit ripeness. Pure racy lemon-juice acidity. Outstanding purity. (JH)