ETA end March 2023. Please take note.
Vintage 2021 is warmer than 2019 but Tai-Ran harvested 10 days earlier to preserve the acidity but phenolics is as good if not better according to him.
Niew Vineyards 2021 will be available in Korea and Japan now. We are not playing the FOMO thing but our allocation of his wines will reduce as he gets more and more popular around the world. As of now, we are getting more wines than Japan and Korea. Let's hope our ex-Singapore resident keeps it that way.
Only 1,500 bottles of vintage 2021 was made!
2019 vintage
The most highly anticipated wine of 2021 has arrived. We present to you Niew Vineyards Chardonnay 2019 from Oregon, USA. Made by ex-Singapore resident and ex-banker Tai-Ran Niew @nievine on Instagram. We tasted few vintages of Bordeaux that he made with VINIV and we liked the style of the wines. We also tasted with him on many occasions and found that our palates are very similar. BUT this Chardonnay really blew our socks off!
We opened this wine at 11am. Was rather closed/tight but we really liked the focus/precision, freshness and a Puligny Montrachet like acidity and minerality. Fresh lemon and lime combo. Almost saline minerality. Medium bodied. Spot on oak management – low intensity and well-integrated. At around 5pm we retasted. With aeration and slight higher temperature, the fruits blossomed and only then you could tell that the fruits are ripe (lemon and melon) yet fresh and held firmly by the mineral backbone. What a sublime wine! We seldom use this descriptor so you can imagine how impressed we were. Drink now with aeration till 2035. Only 1,320 bottles made!!
We totally agree with Tai-Ran’s own notes that this wine has a core of ethereal and vivacious citrus fruits and a refreshing saline finish! What an amazing feat for his first Chardonnay vintage! We can’t wait for the wine from his own Chardonnay vineyards (farmed according to Masanobu Fukuoka’s natural farming method)! Stay tuned.
For geeks: The grapes are from Lingua Franca’s LS Vineyard. Organically farmed (but not certified), non-irrigated Chardonnay clone 548 and 76. Native yeasts, 12 months ageing in oak – 1 x 350 litres new Damy puncheon and 3 x neutral 228l barrels. i.e about 1/3 new oak. 6 months of lees ageing. Only approx. 23mg/l free sulphur. Total sulphur is less than 100mg/l which is within Biodynamic limit and lower than organic limit!
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