Qi Chardonnay
6,600 bottles made
Chateau Nine Peaks’s Qi Chardonnay has a moderate lemon appearance. On the nose, there is attractive, ripe lemon peel and stone fruit (peach, nectarine) combined with some subtle new oak notes of clove, toast, smoke and vanilla, as well as a flinty, struck match quality, which suggests no or little lees stirring. On the palate, it is medium-bodied with some lively acidity—suggesting perhaps not full malolactic conversion. There’s a decent core of pure Chardonnay fruit with no unwanted phenolics and a pleasant tension between the bright acidity and creamy lees texture. With its relatively long length and pure finish, it is drinking well now and will also develop some tertiary complexity over the next 3-5 years.