Sailor Seeks Horse 'Small Wonder' Chardonnay 2023
A glance at the back label of the wine gives you fantastic insight into all aspects of viticulture and winemaking that go into this, telling us that fruit was picked April 1st, that the site sits at 83-86m above sea level, that vine spacing is 2.5m x 1m, that the site has 4000 vines per hectare, that vertical shoot positioning has been used as a training method, that there is no new oak nor any MLF, and that there are only 800 bottles of this in existence. But this glance also gives you insight into the type of farmers and winemakers Paul and Gilli Lipscombe are. Attention to detail to a fanatical degree basically sums it up - and it shows in the wines. Sailor Seeks Horse are some of the most fastidious and obsessive winemakers in all of Australia and they use such determination to make beautifully crafted and detailed wines. Here the 2023 release of ‘Small Wonder’ Chardonnay really shines. There is perhaps a touch more generosity in the wine than the 2022 release, at least at this early stage, with a purity and ‘coolness’ to the fruit that is so attractive. Lemon balm, white florals and cold stone fruit are all flavours that come to mind. Its length and carry is impressive, yet everything comes across with a typically effortless feel. A wine that most producers would be proud to call their flagship, yet this is the entry level wine for this producer. Impressive stuff. - Chesterton Cook, FWC.
The Small Wonder vineyard (formerly Goaty Hill) is up in the Tamar and one of only a very few organically certified vineyards in Tasmania. They were certified for the 2023 vintage. Not the easiest place to be organic either as it can be quite warm and wet up there. We are now the only winemakers they sell fruit to.
Our reasons for doing it were that it would offset the low and temperamental yields at our place, mitigate the risk of a single vineyard source and provide a counterpoint of the warmer Tamar vs the coolth of the Huon. Interestingly the wines seem to have our stamp on them. Last year's SW releases were quite skinny due to having to be picked quite early but these are from a very low yielding year (to the point they were hesitant to offer us fruit) up in the Tamar and so have more intensity but also that savoury edge that we get from our place. Winemaking was more similar to the way we treat our own wines - longer in oak, wild ferments, etc. Paul, Sailor Seeks Horse.