# Pop a Wheelie (2024)

- **Producer:** Responsible Hedonist
- **Colour:** white
- **Type:** still
- **Grapes:** Chardonnay
- **Region:** Hawke's Bay, New Zealand
- **Style:** Natural
- **Alcohol:** 12.5%
- **Average price:** €28
- **Vegan:** Yes
- **Contains sulphites:** Yes
- **When to drink:** Now or Later
- **Serving temperature:** 10–12 °C
- **Aromas & flavours:** peach, apple, lemon, grapefruit, melon, blossom, cream

## About this wine

Founded by Diana Hawkins and Frank Lepera, former Chicago fine-dining sommeliers, Responsible Hedonist is a Black woman co-owned micro-producer based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Sourced from the organically farmed Oak Estate Vineyard in Hawke's Bay's Bridge Pā Triangle, Pop a Wheelie represents an un-oaked, mineral-driven expression of Chardonnay. The vines grow in free-draining alluvial gravels known as Red Metals, formed by ancient riverbed deposits and volcanic tephra.

## Interesting facts

- Founded by former Michelin-starred sommeliers Diana Hawkins and Frank Lepera.
- Grown in ancient Red Metals alluvial soils formed by river deposits and volcanic tephra.
- Micro-production release with only 1,200 bottles produced for the 2024 vintage.

## Food pairing

The wine's bright acidity and saline mineral edge cut through rich, creamy sauces and oily seafood, while its textural lees weight harmonizes with savory roasted poultry and earthy risottos.

## Wine making process

Grapes are early-harvested to maintain high natural acid tension and fresh fruit purity. Fermentation occurs spontaneously using wild yeasts in neutral French oak barrels and stainless steel tanks. Aged exclusively in neutral oak to develop textural weight without impartation of woody oak flavors, the wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered with minimal sulfur additions, resulting in a slightly cloudy appearance in the glass.