A bright yellow/straw color, the 2022 Chardonnay Koosah Vineyard is fresh with notes of chalky earth, white peach, and fresh earth. There’s a hint of sweet, melony fruit on the palate, and it has a balanced feel (but perhaps less austere) and a clean, rounded finish. It’s a very pretty white to drink over the next 10 years. 250 cases were produced. (AF)

The chardonnay vines in the Koosah Vineyard are still fairly young, having only been planted in 2016.The soils here are volcanic and Erica and Ken raise this wine in three hundred-fifty and five hundred liter puncheons for one year, prior to assemblage. The percentage of new oak is a generous sixty-five percent for this bottling in 2022. The bouquet is very expressive for a young Walter Scott chardonnay, wafting from the glass in a lovely, quite floral blend of pear, golden delicious apple, white lilies, apple blossoms and a touch of lavender, macadamia nut, lovely minerality and vanillin oak. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a lovely core of fruit, fine mineral drive and cut, seamless balance and a long, poised and succulent finish. Again, the backend grip and lift are most impressive. Probably due to its higher percentage of new oak used during the élevage, the 2022 Koosah Vineyard chardonnay is the least reductive of these fine single vineyard bottlings this year, so if I was tempted to drink one of the wines in the first blush of youth, I would definitely reach for the Koosah first! Fine, fine juice.

Crushed rocks, mint and sage give way to freshly sliced Granny Smith apples as the 2022 Chardonnay Koosah Vineyard blossoms in the glass. This mixes vividly ripe, citrus-laced orchard fruits with zesty acidity and hints of sour melon as it flows across the palate with silken textures. Notes of sweet spice linger above a salty concentration as the 2022 finishes with admirable length—lightly structure and remarkably fresh, with a mineral crunchiness. This is a ripe interpretation of Koosah, yet it has the acidity to balance. (EG)