Op Die Berg Chardonnay

Please note: Award stickers are applied at the producer's discretion and may not be present on all bottles.

Handpicked at the break of dawn, carefully selected grapes are destemmed, crushed and lightly pressed at De Grendel with a recovery of only 650 litres per ton. After two days of settling, the juice is inoculated and transferred to 225 litre French Oak barrels for fermentation of which 1/3 is new, 1/3 is second fill and 1/3 is third fill.

Well-drained, soft, yellow shale soils. In winter, the vineyard soil is often covered with a layer of snow which provides the perfect conditions for dormancy of the vines, a much-needed resting and recovery period before the growth season starts.

The wine is barrel aged ‘sur lie’ for 5 months whilst undergoing ‘bâtonnage’. Bâtonnage is the method of stirring up the lees and takes place twice a week before malolactic fermentation and once a month after malolactic fermentation to enhance the mouth feel and structure of the wine.