Tasting Note – There is a lovely sense of the genteel yet rich at the same time. Lovely, refined texture! Is it the amphora effect? Very likely as concrete is essentially inert flavourwise but it is porous and does gently shape the wine, more than stainless steel but less so than oak barrels. Sometimes fruit is toned down in concrete but not so here as this shows ripe yellow plum and pear amid shortbread lees, yellow flowers and mineral. It is medium weight (13.5% abv), creamy and refined. Then on comes a very Chablis-like finish with minerality. Excellent to outstanding length. This should age very nicely into the 2030s

Backgrounder – Stratus consstantly experiments with winemaking techniques, and chardonnay is a favourite guinea pig. They began to trial amphora with the 2018 vintage, but winemaker Dean Stoyka believes they have now moved past experimentation, and it that “it is here to stay”. They will continue to look at different types of clay, stoneware and ceramics of different sizes and shapes.  He says that Italy and France are leading the development of this ‘technology’, with China also now advancing as well.  This chardonnay was aged 267 days (nine months) in a 1,000-litre, French-built amphora.