Koen calls this wine ‘Crossroads’ because he certainly is not out to make traditional Barossa Chardonnay. Most examples are very heavy on the palate and stray as far from precision and elegance as can be attained. That being said, Koen greatly respects the Barossa as it is the spiritual home in many ways for the Aussie wine industry and has produced many of the iconic wines that shaped his path toward making Australian wines. Hence he is at the Crossroad. This wine hails from a single site in the cooler pocket of the southern Barossa.
In 2020 this was the first pick of the harvest for Koen and was 100% whole-bunch pressed to concrete tanks where the juice went in quite ‘dirty’ with full lees. Fermentation started naturally after 18 hours and lasted about a week. It spent another four days in tank prior to being racked to old French puncheons where the wine aged and went through malolactic fermentation for nine months. It was bottled without fining, filtration or sulfur dioxide.