Old vines, ancient seabeds, and a wine built for the long haul. The S.R.H. Chardonnay comes from a singular 12-row block at Olive Tree Hill, planted in 1976 to the revered P58 clone. These are Bannockburn’s oldest Chardonnay vines, rooted in a north-facing slope threaded with clay, limestone and marine sediment. Named for estate founder Stuart Reginald Hooper, S.R.H. has become one of the region’s benchmark single-site Chardonnays, defined by concentration, energy and longevity.
Handpicked fruit was whole-bunch pressed and wild-fermented in French hogsheads (around 30% new). Malolactic fermentation was allowed on 70% of the blend, while the remainder retained its natural edge, before ten months of lees aging without stirring. The result is tightly coiled, powerful and mineral, with citrus and stone fruit precision coursing through a frame of saline tension. Structured and exacting, it is already compelling in youth but destined to unfurl over many years.
Old vines, ancient seabeds, and a wine built for the long haul. The S.R.H. Chardonnay comes from a singular 12-row block at Olive Tree Hill, planted in 1976 to the revered P58 clone. These are Bannockburn’s oldest Chardonnay vines, rooted in a north-facing slope threaded with clay, limestone and marine sediment. Named for estate founder Stuart Reginald Hooper, S.R.H. has become one of the region’s benchmark single-site Chardonnays, defined by concentration, energy and longevity.
Handpicked fruit was whole-bunch pressed and wild-fermented in French hogsheads (around 30% new). Malolactic fermentation was allowed on 70% of the blend, while the remainder retained its natural edge, before ten months of lees aging without stirring. The result is tightly coiled, powerful and mineral, with citrus and stone fruit precision coursing through a frame of saline tension. Structured and exacting, it is already compelling in youth but destined to unfurl over many years.