Pyramid Valley's 2024 North Canterbury Chardonnay is shaped by a warm, dry El Niño season that gave moderate yields and beautifully ripe fruit. A very dry finish to the season concentrated the flavours and lifted acidities slightly. This is the first vintage with a meaningful contribution from the young Waikari plantings, which add freshness, tension and a more chiselled feel.
In the winery, the fruit was hand-picked and hand-sorted, then crushed as whole bunches and gently pressed in a horizontal bag press. The juice was homogenised in tank and moved without settling into foudre and barrels (23% new), where it fermented with ambient yeasts and went through full malolactic conversion. Nothing was added. The wine stayed on its lees without sulphur for 12 months, then was blended and sulphured in April 2025. It spent a second winter on light lees in small horizontal stainless steel tanks, settling naturally, before being bottled unfined and unfiltered in September 2025 under screwcap.