We used traditional Burgundian methods in making this wine, including natural spontaneous primary and secondary (malo-lactic) fermentations in French oak puncheons (30%new) and maturation for 20 months before bottling.  Modest crops and an ideal growing season have given the wine excellent fruit expression.  Virtuoso is made from a barrel selection and typically comes from vines on their own roots that are a quarter of a century old.

The bouquet and flavour evoke impressions of nectarines, white fleshed peaches, yellow plums and rock melon, coating a core of citrus fruits. These intermingle with hints of toasted hazelnuts, marzipan, breakfast cereal, liquorice and black olives. The wine is concentrated and powerful in the mouth but stays quite restrained and refined.  The lingering aftertaste is drawn out by lively minerality and tangy crispness.  While ready to drink on release, with careful cellaring it should become more complex and integrated over the next 5 or 6 years and last a decade or more. 

Warm and dry conditions prevailed during spring and early summer so that we became concerned the vines might be affected by drought.  Luckily we had a brief torrential downpour in February which set the dry streams gurgling merrily and replenished the groundwater reserves.  The rest of the summer was excellent.  Although we had humid conditions in late autumn we had earlier removed some leaves from the fruiting zone to allow good ventilation so the crop ripened beautifully and remained perfectly healthy.

The 2006 growing season was longer than usual as mild spring weather resulted in early bud-burst; however this was followed by cool nights which prevented excessively rapid growth.  There was good accumulation of summer heat and a long, dry autumn.  Harvest occurred late in April, a little earlier than normal to retain elegance.

Cool weather over late spring and early summer affected the pollination of the grape flowers and led to a marked reduction in the amount of fruit setting in our block of Mendoza Chardonnay, a clone which, even at the best of times, has only low crops...