Freshness and Texture in Clos Ostler Chardonnay 2025
Updated: 4 days ago
White flowers, pear and green plum give Clos Ostler Chardonnay 2025 an immediate aromatic lift. Brioche and toasted almond follow, with gentle creaminess through the palate and a fresh, saline finish. It is a wine with depth, carried by lively acidity.
The Chardonnay grows within our single limestone vineyard in the Waitaki Valley, North Otago. Its place alongside the estate’s Pinot Noir gives us another way to follow the site through the seasons.
The 2025 in the glass
Allow a chilled bottle a little time at the table. As it opens, the relationship between aromatic lift, lees texture and acidity becomes easier to follow. The freshness remains central even as the palate gains breadth.
Whole-bunch pressing and barrel fermentation
The fruit was whole-bunch pressed and fermented in oak, with 35% new barrels. That percentage describes the share of new wood within the barrel programme. The remaining barrels have already held wine, so the figure alone gives only part of the picture of the finished Chardonnay.
The wine remained on its full lees, the sediment left by fermentation. Yeast cells form a substantial part of that sediment. During ageing, they release compounds, including polysaccharides, that can influence mouthfeel and the integration of fruit and oak. Texture develops through this contact even after the alcoholic fermentation has finished.
In the 2025, brioche and toasted almond sit alongside pear, green plum and white flowers. These are observations of the wine as a whole. Fermentation, wood and lees interact, making it unhelpful to assign each aroma to a single step in the cellar. The detail we value is how the rounded middle of the palate leads into a fresh finish.
Partial malolactic fermentation
The 2025 underwent partial malolactic fermentation, in which bacteria convert some of the wine’s malic acid into lactic acid. This reduces acidity while leaving a proportion of the malic acid unconverted. It is one of the decisions behind the wine’s balance of breadth and freshness.
The relationship with butteriness is more involved. Diacetyl, a compound associated with buttery aromas, can be formed during malolactic fermentation, but its concentration and perception depend on factors including the bacteria, oxygen exposure and lees contact. Full conversion can therefore coexist with a fresh, finely drawn wine. “Partial” describes the extent of the process; it gives no complete account of the wine’s flavour.
The 2024 Chardonnay completed malolactic fermentation and spent eleven months in French oak after a wild fermentation. Its peach, citrus and biscuit notes offer a useful comparison with the floral, pear and green-plum character of the 2025. Two different harvests and two sets of cellar decisions are involved. Keeping both in mind makes the comparison more revealing than treating malolactic fermentation as the single explanation.
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