Whole-Bunch Pressing and the Beginning of Clos Ostler Chardonnay
Before Chardonnay acquires the texture of barrel fermentation or the quiet influence of its lees, there is a decision about how to release the juice. At Clos Ostler, the 2024 and 2025 Chardonnay fruit was whole-bunch pressed. The phrase occupies only a few words on a technical sheet, yet it describes an important beginning to the wine.
Whole bunches enter the press with the berries still attached to their stems. Pressure releases the juice, which is separated from the solid material before fermentation. Whole-bunch fermentation, a term more often encountered in discussions of Pinot Noir, describes a different process in which intact bunches participate in the ferment itself. In our Chardonnay, the reference is to pressing.
The first decisions about texture
Grape juice does not arrive at the cellar as an isolated ingredient. Skins, seeds and pulp contain material that can influence the eventual wine, and their contact with the juice matters. The Australian Wine Research Institute’s work on white-wine skin contact describes changes in flavour, body and phenolic composition as this contact varies. Its Chardonnay trials compare whole-bunch pressing with crushed fruit and longer periods on the skins.
That distinction brings texture into the conversation before oak is involved. Extraction from grape solids can contribute to the feel of a white wine, including firmness or astringency when phenolic material is prominent. Pressing is therefore part of the route towards a chosen style. The name of the technique alone cannot describe every detail of the juice or predict the finished wine.
Air and the character of the juice
Oxygen exposure adds another dimension. In Chardonnay research, the Australian Wine Research Institute compared pressing under different oxygen conditions and found differences in phenolic composition and aroma-related compounds. Whole-bunch pressing can therefore sit within more than one approach to juice handling. The timing and conditions of the work matter alongside the condition of the grapes.
For a wine drinker, this helps make sense of a technical description that otherwise seems simple. Two Chardonnays described as whole-bunch pressed can emerge with different shapes and aromas. The technique tells us something concrete about the process, while leaving room for the vineyard, harvest and subsequent choices to have their influence.
From the press to the barrel
At Clos Ostler, the 2024 Chardonnay continued into wild fermentation in French oak, followed by eleven months in barrel and full malolactic fermentation. The 2025 was also fermented and matured in barrel, with partial malolactic fermentation. Pressing provides a shared starting point in the two releases, while their seasons and later cellar decisions give each a different course.
Our tasting of the 2024 brings white peach, lime zest and green plum together with biscuit and barrel texture. The 2025 opens towards white flowers, pear and nectarine, with brioche and toasted almond around a fresh finish. These impressions belong to the complete wines. Their interest lies in the way the elements meet, with the fruit remaining clear as the palate develops.
A small planting with a distinct voice
Chardonnay occupies a small part of Clos Ostler’s limestone vineyard in the Waitaki Valley. It gives us a different expression of the same north-facing slope that carries Caroline’s and EOS Pinot Noir. The attention paid at pressing belongs to that larger purpose, preserving possibilities in the juice before fermentation and maturation develop them further.
Following the wine from this first stage makes its texture more interesting to encounter at the table. Barrel, lees and acidity are easier to understand as parts of a continuous process. In the finished Chardonnay, we look for the pleasure of depth alongside aromatic clarity, with enough freshness for the flavours to remain alive through the finish.
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