2024 Stefano Lubiana Primavera Chardonnay

A menagerie of clones from our two vineyards contribute the fruit to this chardonnay. The majority of the fruit is grown at our Granton vineyard, located in the Derwent Valley, and the other portion is grown at our Cradoc vineyard, in the heart of the Huon. The combination of these two terroirs frame the wine with acid and balance.

The Granton soil has a gravel base covered in red loam with patches of riverbed silt. The vines vary in age with vines predominantly 25-30 years old, the latter are from our chardonnay rows in the Ruscello vineyard. There is a tiny portion of fruit from our new close-planted block planted in 2019, this is the first table wine from this new high density block at the highest point of our vineyard. The Granton fruit offers a richer, more textured wine. Contrastingly, our Cradoc fruit is grown on a soil type of composite cobble stone over white clay. These chardonnay vines are mature at 30+ years old. This parcel of fruit is abundantly bright, offering more mineral characters and tighter frame.

Hand picked grapes are processed immediately, all fruit is pressed first then barrelled by gravity to the naturally cool and calm underground cellar. The juice, on full solids, fills a mixture of oak vessels, mainly 228L barriques (10% new) and some 500L puncheons, all located in our cellar. The juice’s indigenous yeast erupts into spontaneous fermentation, and it bubbles away gently here. Once the wine is dry secondary fermentation begins with inoculation. Barrels are topped regularly and battonaged infrequently. Bottled on- site in January 2025.

The 2024 growing season was cool with a drier than average winter and spring. This was followed by a warm and overcast summer with a major rain event of 20mm in the second week of January 2024. Thereafter, the season was consistently warm which meant vintage was brought forward compared to the previous four years of La Niña. Diligent work in the vineyard meant the quality of this year’s grapes were of excellent quality and had high concentration of flavour. – Stefano Lubiana