Wine Advisor
Pyramid Valley, Lion's Tooth Chardonnay 2023
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Rebecca Gibb MW
The 2023 Chardonnay Lion's Tooth is young and tightly wound, with a clarity of cool climate fruit. While there's a sense of tenderness, a feature of dry whites grown on chalky soils, it is bone dry with a sense of savory forcefulness. Citrus, apple and a distinct salinity shine with subtle oak-derived hazelnut characters.
Reviewed by: Erin Larkin
The 2023 Lion's Tooth Chardonnay leads with grilled pineapple on the nose and notes of yellow peach, cashew and chamomile. In the mouth, the wine is delicate and chalky, salty, intense and a little tropical, with glossy phenolics that create shape and flow across the palate. I love this wine and slotted it into a tasting today of premium Chardonnay from both Australia and New Zealand. It really does have a clear identity and distinct presence on the table. This is very good. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under Diam and wax.
About the Producer
21st century when Mike and Claudia Weersing established the site and set about creating the vineyards over almost the next two decades. Pyramid Valley is one of New Zealand's great wine estates where altitude, limestone, slope, rock and rich soils meet to produce profound Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. 2017 marked the next step in Pyramid Valley’s history when the Weersings decided to sell to Steve Smith MW (perhaps best known for establishing Craggy Range) and his business partner and wildlife conservationist Brian Sheth. Steve and Brian are building on the work done by the Weersings to fulfil the full potential of the site. In 2018 they purchased a second vineyard in Lowburn, Central Otago called Manata Estate, an established vineyard that has produced exceptional Pinot Noir since 2002.
