Q Class Chardonnay 2020

This wonderfully opulent Chardonnay displays intense tropical fruit aromas of pineapple & lime, leading to luxurious flavours of caramel, butterscotch and macadamia nut and ends with a generous, lingering finish.

Inspired by the international success of The Roman Road Chardonnay, at the 2020 Decanter World Wine Awards, Simpsons’ Wine Estate is committed to maintaining an exceptional level of still wine production, always seeking to deliver beyond expectations.

The idyllic 2020 harvest conditions, together with an outstanding parcel of Chardonnay on the Railway Hill Vineyard site, presented the perfect opportunity to push the boundaries of world class still wine production even further. Combining unique terroir with meticulous viticulture and wine-making expertise, the Q Class wines will only be produced in exceptional years, in order to showcase the Simpsons’ hallmark of quality, luxury and finesse.

The Simpsons’ Railway Hill Vineyard is so called because the Canterbury to Folkestone light railway passed through this site in the late 19th and first half of the 20th Century. The Q Class engines, which traversed this line, were powerful yet elegant, qualities that are exemplified in this wine. We hope this range will herald a golden era for still English winemaking.

This wonderfully opulent Chardonnay displays intense tropical fruit aromas of pineapple & lime, leading to luxurious flavours of caramel, butterscotch and macadamia nut and ends with a generous, lingering finish.

A specially selected parcel of two Burgundian Chardonnay clones was hand-harvested on 5th November 2020. This date was carefully identified as the optimum window to harvest these grapes, when they were presenting intense tropical and opulent flavours combined with balanced acidity.

Once pressed, the juice was left to settle for twelve hours. The juice was racked to eight barrels with high levels of solids. Each barrel had its own unique properties, with six of the set crafted with new oak and two made from one-year old oak. Furthermore, the barrels were a combination of French and American oak and ranged from light, medium to heavy toast. The wine was then allowed to undergo alcoholic and malolactic fermentation using indigenous microflora.

Post alcoholic fermentation, the wine was aged for six months in barrel. Initially the lees were stirred bi-weekly, reducing to once per week in January 2021 and then on a monthly-basis for the remaining time in barrel. In Spring 2021 the wine was racked into stainless steel tanks ready for filtration and bottling into Magnums.