2019 Lion’s Tooth Chardonnay

Botanicals collection. Waikari vineyard. Neat, aromatic, intriguing nose. Great balance and some mealiness. Lots of acidity and green fruit flavours – much more fruit than the Field of Fire. (JR)

Full bottle 1,425 g. Certified Demeter biodynamic. Screwcap. From a 0.4-ha vineyard, named after its abundance of dandelions (‘dent-de-lion’, or lion’s tooth in French). Steep, east-facing site on limestone and clay of the area but the lower levels of clay compared with Field of Fire result in it being the less vigorous of the two Chardonnay blocks. It is also more exposed and ripens earlier. Planted in 2000. In 2019, Lion’s Tooth was picked more than a week before Field of Fire. The grapes for the 2019 were foot-stomped in the original shed, then whole-bunch pressed. Spontaneous fermentation on full solids before spending 17 months on lees in high-quality, used French oak. Unfined and unfiltered. Was this chiselled from smoke stone and grapefruit marble? It tastes as if it might have been. Smoky and white citrus yet rich and powerful; crystal cut yet broad. Salted lemons and rock-pool brine and apricots. So pure it seems to ring with the deep wild tang of a mountain gong, across valley and space and cliff. Amplifies in the mouth, as if the acidity were travelling across the mouth in an acoustic wave, refracted by the unflinching intensity of the fruit. Long and assertive. (TC)

Step back, clear the area; the 2019 Chardonnay Lion's Tooth is one concentrated powerhouse of a Chardonnay. It is an incredibly concentrated wine hailing from a parcel with a high proportion of active limestone, bringing length and texture. There's this almost lemon-like line of acid (50% of the wine is composed of the Mendoza clone), as if a bayonet is striking through its core. There is flesh on the elegant midpalate and restrained flavors of nectarine and almond (17 months on lees) and lemon. This is winemaker Huw Kinch's first vintage at Pyramid, and if he can make this on his first attempt, I may be a bit too excited about future bottlings.