d’Arenberg The Olive Grove Chardonnay McLaren Vale’s sandy, ironstone littered soil sustains native scrub, plots of almonds, pine forests and also olive groves, which were planted alongside vineyards by the first settlers in the district. Over the years various varieties of olive trees have sprung up everywhere, on the sides of roads and also in and around our Chardonnay vineyard The Olive Grove Chardonnay goes through the gentle d’Arenberg process of being crushed by our rubber–toothed Demoisy crusher, before fermentation in various ways. Some of the Chardonnay will be whole bunch pressed straight off skins before going into barrel to finish fermentation there. Traditionally the Olive Grove is a blend of 1/3 each of Chardonnay grapes fermented and matured in stainless steel, 1/3 starts fermentation in stainless steel and then goes into French and American oak to continue fermentation for about 4 weeks, and the final component completes fermentation and maturation for about 5 months in new and older French and American oak. The Olive Grove Chardonnay has won a pretty smart reputation for itself both nationally and internationally, most notably winning multiple gold medals at the Chardonnay du Monde in Burgundy France.