Philip Shaw The Architect Chardonnay 2019 (12x 750mL), Orange NSW. Screwcap

The purchase of the Koomooloo property in 1989 marked the start of an adventure and a dream realised for Philip Shaw. Much study and planning had gone into finding this site, one that was ideal for making an elegant, bright, intense wines, with its high altitude, cool climate and aspects to the North, South and East. At nearly 900m altitude, Koomooloo is one of the higher planted vineyards in Australia. The vineyard’s soil is an interesting mix of topsoil wind blown from central Australia, reputed to be some of the oldest on the planet, and volcanic red sub soil set over deep limestone. Now 20 years on, Koomooloo has 47 hectares of vines planted, all vertically trained on a single cordon. The vines are hand-pruned, shoot thinned, bunch thinned prior to veriasion to achieve the desired low crops. Fruit is hand picked at relatively low sugar levels but exhibiting bright intense fruit characters with a clearly defined varietal character. Whole bunches travel down a sorting table with 4 people on either side removing green or damaged berries, only clean fruit remains. “A great wine is a marriage between the vineyard and the winemaker. Our wines have strong, bright elegant varietal fruit character aiming for subtle rather than ripe fruit character that ages extremely well.” Philip Shaw.