Coulter Wines, C1 Chardonnay

Coulter Wines are minimal intervention, small-batch wine focused on cleanliness and purity. 5 Star James Halliday Winery

Produced from the wonderful Echunga Single Vineyard site in the Adelaide Hills, this Chardonnay is tight but full of flavour. 

• Grape: Chardonnay
• Region: Adelaide Hills
• Alcohol: 12.3%
• Cellaring: Drink now until 2024
• Palate:  Tight and beautifully focused while rich, weighted and full of flavour.
• Whole bunch pressed to French oak to undergo a full solids barrel fermentation, lees stirred with minimal sulphur. A classic interpretation of barrel fermented Chardonnay.

About the winemaker

“It’s fast becoming apparent that Coulter is a special producer.” - Campbell Mattinson, Wine Companion

Chris Coulter is the epitome of Australia’s modern winemaking renaissance. After gaining a winemaking degree he worked for many years for some of the high volume wine giants of the Australian industry, building technical mastery along the way but always harbouring the desire to make more honest wines. A chance meeting with a mate, who despite having limited access to resources was punching out stunning small batch wine, set the wheels in motion. James Halliday explains, “Coulter Wines was born in the ’15 vintage as a side project, making wines from another universe – nothing other than minimal SO2 is added, movements are by gravity and the wine is unfiltered where practicable.”

Coulter produces minimal intervention, small batch wines that focus on purity and freshness, and to say he takes things seriously would be an understatement. He purchases grapes from a small number of meticulous, trusted cool-site growers, mostly in the Adelaide Hills, with all fruit handpicked and crushed on the same day.

The C1 Chardonnay is produced from a wonderful single vineyard in Echunga. Tight and beautifully focused while rich, weighted and full of flavour. The C3 Pinot Noir is from two cool sites - one in Balhannah and one in Carey Gully - delivering spicy red fruit, sous bois and evident whole bunch. Rounding out the range are the savoury C2 carbonic maceration Sangiovese; the bright, spicy, smokey C5 Barbera; and the very limited C6 Gamay - full of fresh red fruits, crunchy acidity, and gentle grip. Limited time in barrel allows all the wines to retain their bright and vibrant fruitfulness with all wines released within 6 months of production.