Chardonnay

Strawberry is an odd note to find in a Chardonnay, and it turns up here alongside garden flowers and citrus in a nose that is more perfumed than the variety usually manages. The palate follows through with forest berry and citrus before closing clean and crisp. Pale straw in the glass. McGuigan ferments the wine properly first, then removes the alcohol with spinning cone technology at low temperature, the gentler of the industrial methods and much better at holding delicate aromatics in place. The result reads 0.05% ABV, effectively nothing. Acidity is healthy at 6.5 grams per litre against a pH of 3.20, which is what stops 38 grams of residual sugar from tasting cloying. No artificial sweeteners or additives are used to prop it up. Serve it properly cold with soft cheese or roast chicken. Fruit from New South Wales, 750ml, from a Hunter Valley family over a hundred years into the job.