Producing our Chardonnay is one of life’s great pleasures. I love that our site is cold climate and continental, sitting at 430 metres, with wonderful cool diurnal nights, year on year we achieve a long ripening period on the vine. All of these parameters provide the high natural acidity that allows a full malo-lactic fermentation to go through. It all helps show soil type and terroir by not tinkering in the winemaking.

The 2025 vintage may have been condensed by a warmer than average season, but make no mistake, this is still a beautiful classic Intrinsic release.

The block was planted in 1991 to Clone I10V5, this original block continues to thrive under organic, biodynamic and regenerative farming practices. Diverse cover crops enhance soil vitality and encourage a living ecosystem beneath the vines. Walking through the rows, you can feel the ground alive with energy, a connection we believe translates directly into the fruit and the wine.

Once optimum ripeness is reached, we harvest in the cool of the morning, the fruit goes over our vibrating sorting table and into the pneumatic press as whole bunches. We press on a manual cycle, tasting the juice as we go, and make the press cut on the free run once phenolics and tannin start to become too much of a focus. The juice rests for a day, then is racked to 300L hogsheads from Sirugue (French) and Stockinger (Austrian) cooperages, 30% new.

From there, it ferments naturally with indigenous yeasts, with no additions and no cooling. Ferments can take anywhere from two to eight weeks or more. Once complete, the barrels are fully topped up and stored in the cellar, topped monthly. Full malolactic fermentation happens naturally, with no lees stirring and no interference, and a small sulphur addition follows after malo. After about 12 months in barrel, the wine is racked to stainless steel for another six months to settle and harmonise, then bottled on our own estate bottling line, unfined and unfiltered.

It’s a very relaxed approach, designed to show off our terroir and farming. No tricks, no fuss. There’s never been a thought process to chase down a certain style or the influence of another region. We are what we are, for two generations it’s been a focus on our own sites.

Countless hours of detailed vineyard work have paid off once again, and that commitment shines clearly in the glass. This is a wine that is immediately expressive and built for longevity: Chardonnay with both vibrancy and the promise of graceful evolution.

Across the estate, our new Chardonnay plantings (Clones Bernard 76 and Penfolds 58) flourished this past season. Watching these young blocks establish themselves in our soils is incredibly exciting. They offer a glimpse into the future of Intrinsic, and if all goes to plan, next year will bring our very first crop.

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