Log in for prices and ordering
For the first time, Rocket is a single-vineyard wine. A couple of years back, the Downer family purchased Lenswood Vineyard, an 18-hectare property in the Lenswood sub-region of the Adelaide Hills. Initially planted in 1989, this beautiful site is perched at 500 metres and is home to some of the oldest vines in the Lenswood area. Since taking over the property, Downer and his team have worked tirelessly to bring farming and fruit quality at this already revered site up to the exacting Murdoch Hill standards. That work has quickly paid off, with Lenswood now the sole source for the estate’s flagship Rocket Chardonnay.
The site is home to a tapestry of clones, but a mix of the original 1989 I10v1 vines (own-rooted and low-yielding on a steep, east-facing slope) and B76 vines planted in 2000 in the western Forest block was chosen for 2023 Rocket. In terms of style, Downer tells us Lenswood and its clonal mix make for a wine of grace, purity and openness while maintaining racy freshness and lithe structure.
The fruit was pressed as whole bunches to tight-grained barrels (mostly puncheons, 50% new) for fermentation. The wine went through full malolactic conversion with occasional lees stirring throughout an eight-month maturation in wood. The wine was blended and matured for a further few months in tank before bottling. Mike Bennie’s note below captures the wine well; it’s another striking, high-octane model and a world-class Chardonnay.