“I really believe in the uniqueness and inherent top-end quality of Hawke’s Bay chardonnay,” says Tony Bish. It’s why it’s all he’ll ever make under the eponymous label he launched in 2013. “Focus, focus, focus,” he says.
In a typical year, Tony produces eight chardonnay wines, from the premium Zen to the entry-level Fat & Sassy, all made with fruit from the Skeetfield (Omahu), Kokako Farms (Ohiti Valley) or Two Terraces (Mangatahi) vineyards in Hawke’s Bay on New Zealand’s North Island.
All the fruit is hand-picked and whole bunch pressed with zero additives, and the juice handled oxidatively. Beyond the differences derived from site, clone (Skeetfield is 100 per cent old vine, dry farmed Mendoza; the others include 548, 15 and B95) and winemaking, what makes these wines distinct is the vessel used to ferment and mature them. “Vessel is everything for chardonnay,” Tony says.
He uses French oak barrels (100 per cent Taransaud, focusing on tight and very tight grain selections), concrete eggs (which may be more common now, but weren’t when he introduced them in 2015), and uniquely, oak eggs. In fact, the 2017 Zen Chardonnay was the first chardonnay in the world to be produced in an Ovum – a 2000L egg-shaped vessel made from French oak.
“Eggs create unique yeast derived texture from a combination of factors,” Tony says. “Firstly, the passive motion that keeps yeast in suspension. Secondly, the huge surface area of yeast that clings to the lower hemisphere in a thin layer. Both these factors result in enhanced yeast autolysis, giving creamy textural qualities.
“My understanding of the yeast extracted benefits of concrete eggs led me to think an oak egg would be pretty amazing, so I took the punt,” he adds. He continued to produce the Zen from Ovum until a stave cracked in 2021 – since the 2024 vintage, which is the current release, he has made the wine in 1200L Taransaud Ovoid foudres.
“These egg-shaped vessels are stunning,” he explains. “They combine the yeast benefits of an egg with the marriage of oak extracts and, being millimetre staves, very slow micro-oxygenation.”
As well as the 2024 Zen, off the Kokako Farms vineyard, Dave Brookes also looked at the 2024 Skeetfield Chardonnay and 2024 Two Terraces Chardonnay. See how he scored them below.
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