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Nautilus Estate
Chardonnay 2023

Nautilus Estate
Chardonnay 2023

The 2023 Nautilus Chardonnay is straw coloured with a lifted nose of ripe nectarines, brioche, beeswax and toasted almonds with a hint of flinty complexity. The palate displays stone fruits, honeysuckle, and a nutty complexity from the natural ferments. The palate has good depth and concentration with a refreshingly long finish. This wine has a tight mineral structure and will develop a creamy texture as it matures.
Item No. NAUCHA23A6-BT
4.8 out of 5 Customer Rating
750mL Bottle
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The 2023 Nautilus Chardonnay is straw coloured with a lifted nose of ripe nectarines, brioche, beeswax and toasted almonds with a hint of flinty complexity. The palate displays stone fruits, honeysuckle, and a nutty complexity from the natural ferments. The palate has good depth and concentration with a refreshingly long finish. This wine has a tight mineral structure and will develop a creamy texture as it matures.

The Details

Tasting Note The 2023 Nautilus Chardonnay is straw coloured with a lifted nose of ripe nectarines, brioche, beeswax and toasted almonds with a hint of flinty complexity. The palate displays stone fruits, honeysuckle, and a nutty complexity from the natural ferments. The palate has good depth and concentration with a refreshingly long finish. This wine has a tight mineral structure and will develop a creamy texture as it matures.
Best Enjoyed With Delicious with leek, mushroom & mustard chicken with herby cauliflower rice.
Treatment Handpicked grapes were chilled overnight before gentle pressing. The wine was entirely barrelled fermented in French oak barriques (20% new) using indigenous yeast. A short period of lees stirring post ferment adds a textural element to the palate.
Vintage 2023
Varietal Chardonnay
Region Marlborough
Alcohol by Volume 13%
Winemaker Clive Jones
Cellaring Recommendations This wine will further integrate and develop for 3 to 5 years from vintage.
Pack Size Options 1 , 6

Accolades

Mouthwatering and textural
Interesting style in some ways. There’s a lot of struck match character here but there’s also pineapple, butter, citrus and cream. It seems to have a foot in a few camps and so cohesion isn’t its strongest point, but then it’s both mouthwatering and textural and while not necessarily “big”, it does deliver a good amount of flavour. It’s not for everyone. But for what it’s worth, I like it. It’s not bland. And it lingers.
Campbell Mattinson

Polished, complex and characterful
Barrel fermented in French oak (20% new), this is a finely pitched Chardonnay for those who enjoy nutty, flinty complexity with freshness at its core. Some stubborn struck-match reduction opens, but eases with air into aromas of preserved lemon, cashew cream, grilled nectarine, peach skin and toasted almond. The palate is creamy and dense, wrapping citrus preserves, flint, nectarine, pear and almond meal in a gently toasty frame. There’s some phenolic chew for textural grip, and a well-timed surge of acidity that lifts and cleanses the finish. Polished, complex and characterful—this offers serious value at $36.
Tom Kline

A lip-smacking acidity
This is a rather delightful example of Marlborough Chardonnay. It’s somewhat understated but certainly displays some attractive characters. Opens with that typical stone fruit, nectarine-dominated aroma, with a little bit of roasted cashew, a little minerality, and just a trace of morning brioche. The palate is textured, but there’s a lip-smacking acidity which brings it to life. It was naturally fermented, and it displays layered complexity and excellent fruit concentration. The tight, fine minerality will ensure mid-term, medium-term cellaring.
Ray Jordan
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