Blank Canvas Reed Vineyard Chardonnay

Producer

Blank Canvas is the vinous studio of award-winning international winemaking consultant Matt Thomson and Master of Wine Sophie Parker-Thomson. With over 40 years of collective experience in the global wine industry, they produce small batch fine wines from exceptional single vineyard sites throughout New Zealand under their art-meets-science project. Matt has worked over fifty vintages in numerous wine regions around the world and has worked with David Gleave since 1994. He is involved with many of the wines in our portfolio, primarily as a consultant. Sophie has been travelling to Europe and working with Matt since 2011, leaving her career in law behind her. This international experience is the founding inspiration for this husband-and-wife team.

From the Waihopai Valley, with low-vigour clay soils, comes the Reed Vineyard Chardonnay which typically displays white peach, grapefruit and an attractive flintiness alongside a precise drive of acidity. It is fermented in 500 litre French oak puncheons, 50% new, with no lees stirring. The unfiltered wine is generous and complex, with great capacity for ageing. The Berakah vineyard in the Rapaura subregion is home to their Grüner Veltliner. A combination of fermentation in puncheons and maturation on lees gives savoury complexity. Sophie describes it as “an aromatic Chardonnay, especially after a few years in bottle.”

Blank Canvas Reed Vineyard Chardonnay - Hay Wines