Flat Rock Cellars 2007 Chardonnay is a blend of all four blocks of Chardonnay on the Flat Rock property - clones 95 and 76 on rootstocks S04 and 3309. Grapes were hand picked in September and sorted to remove any imperfect bunches. Grapes were either de-stemmed and crushed or whole-cluster pressed and cold settled in stainless steel tanks.
Half the wine was fermented and matured on lees in tank; the rest fermented in barrels and left on the lees for ten months to age. During these months the lees were stirred once a week to increase mouth feel. For the barrel fermented portion, we used 21% new oak barrels, 33% second-fill French oak barrels and the rest in older barrels to achieve good expression of the fruit. Wild as well as commercial yeast strains were used for the primary fermentation, and malolactic fermentation was completed in barrel.
Following maturation all barrels were tasted and the ones expressing the best varietal fruit character were selected for this wine. The Chardonnay was removed from barrel after 10 months, where it was blended, racked, stabilized, filtered and bottled in August 2008.
Cuvée 2010 - Best White Wine
Cuvée 2010 - 1st place (GOLD)
2010 Ontario Wine Awards (silver)
2010 Decanter International Wine Awards (commended)