Chardonnay

This wine will complement fattier and rich fish dishes such as sashimi or prepared, as well as cooked shellfish. It works well with seared foie grass, complex salads and most cheeses.

Picking decisions at Almenkerk are made by tasting the grapes daily during the harvest season. With Chardonnay, we look for phenolic ripeness while retaining the natural acidity our cool climate offers us. Prior to harvest we get a small team to walk the 13 rows of each zone and drop any bunches that are not perfectly healthy or fully ripe. Harvesting takes place early in the morning only to keep the temperature of the grapes low. All grapes are hand-picked into small lug boxes to prevent compaction. Since we do not use sulfur in the early stages of the winemaking process, selection of only the healthiest grapes is crucial. We do a double sorting in the vineyard and a last meticulous sorting at the cellar to ensure clean fruit flavours. The various vigour-zones are picked & vinified separately to allow the blending decision to be postponed until just before bottling.

After fermentation, the wine undergoes lees contact for an average of 10 months on the gross lees without bâtonnage. Newer barrels are left longer (11 months) to achieve full integration while older barrels are emptied at 8-9 months to retain freshness. All batches & barrel treatments are kept separately. Each barrel gets assessed individually for its suitability in our Almenkerk range.

After gentle pressing and cold settling, the wine is gravity-fed into small French oak barrels (228 -300L) of which 26.5% is new barrels and left to start natural (wild yeast) fermentation. Barrel selection is based on 10 years of experience working the same grapes from the same block. Completing fermentation can take from 3 weeks to 3 months for individual barrels.

Almenkerk Wine Estate is a small family-owned wine estate situated in the Elgin valley just east of Cape Town South Africa. The estate is owned by the Belgian/Dutch van Almenkerk family and run by Natalie and Joris van Almenkerk. Whilst Joris has fun making award-winning wines Natalie is in charge of sales and marketing PR and admin. Patriarch Joep helps out with sales frequent wine tastings and as a mentor on the business side. As well as that we have a dedicated group of family and friends that come over to help us out by opening the tasting room when we are not around or assisting with the harvest. We’d love to welcome you to our estate in the beautiful cool-climate Elgin Valley. Come for a tasting and enjoy the spectacular views across the valley and vineyards whilst we share our story and wines with you.