'NOW' by PAXTON stands for NATURAL ORGANIC WINE.

The consumer market demand has been growing steadily for Preservative Free/Natural wines. As leaders in organic production, it was obvious that Paxton needed a product for this category. In addition to Natural, PF & Organic, we wanted to make a young, drink NOW style Chardonnay that was different from our existing Chardonnay style.

Winemaking

We pick our Four O’clock Chardonnay at night, or early in the morning to keep the grapes cool and help jolly along the delicate nectarine and stone fruit characters and not lose them. Joch and the team make this wine in batches so we end up with different components when it comes time to put the wine together and bottle it. We get our Chardonnay from 3 different (organic) blocks on the vineyards, so each batch brings its own peculiarities of site with it to the mix. We try our very hardest to keep the ferment away from oxygen, and the grapes undergo a cool ferment in stainless steel tanks. We don’t allow the wine to go through the secondary malolactic fermentation, because we want to protect the natural acidity.

Tasting Note

2015 was a great white year in McLaren Vale (no shark pun intended) - the wine shows length, balance and freshness with citrus and stone fruit and a hint of pineapple. This wine shows so much flavour and character for a wine that is completely unoaked. ‘Four o’clock’ is pretty versatile, too; great as an aperitif (don’t serve too chilled) and wonderful with a range of foods: roast chicken and mushroom risotto is my standard food matching suggestion.

The Thomas Block Chardonnay is a biodynamically produced organic wine that is vegan compliant. Past vintages have consistently all scored 90+ points from the recognised wine critics.

Golden straw with a slight green hue exhibiting bright tropical fruits with hints of olives, butter-scotch & zesty citrus notes
Lemon & characters with integrated French oak, a touch of marmalade, butterscotch & delicate minerality

A delicious Chardonnay from one of Australia's most respected wine growers - David Paxton. Paxton's organic wines are produced on Biodynamic principles without the use of synthetic fertilisers or pesticides with a focus on promoting healthy, living soils.

We are not afraid of flavour here at Battle of Bosworth, and while this Chardonnay is a long way away from the voluptuous full buttery styles of the 1980’s, you can see how we arrived where we did. We love the rich stone fruit and cashew notes, we love the oak which while integrated is still apparent and we love the length and lovely acidity. Stone fruits and citrus on the nose, a touch of cashew nut and great length and acidity to balance the richness

Tulloch 'E. M.' Limited Production Chardonnay 2018

17.5/20 pts - Jancis Robinson

93pts - James Halliday

"Very succulent apricot fruit rounded out with toffee & caramel as well as a lot of floral character. Just the right balance of viscosity, acidity & fruit concentration. Excellent stuff!" - Jancis Robinson

"Smoky, bacony oak adds a clear edge to strong, characterful fruit. If an elegant wine can also be a force to be reckoned with, then this is it." - James Halliday