Chardonnay

Pork, Rich fish (salmon, tuna etc), Vegetarian, Poultry

Two blocks from our vineyard in the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge yield Chardonnay that just brims with potential from the moment the grapes start to ripen. A great combination of site, soils and weather on the belly of the Babylon's Toren mountain slopes allow us to ripen the grapes perfectly, retaining wonderful acidities and a gamut of flavours. Early morning picking into small crates means that the winemaker receives the grapes in the perfect condition in which they were picked.

Slight rolling of the lees in barrel during 9 months of ageing helps to keep the wine fresh and develop the texture. 28% new French oak barrels are used for maturation of this wine, with the remainder being 2nd and 3rd fill.

Simplicity is the key to bringing out the potential in the Chardonnay that we pick. Grapes are whole bunch pressed to yield a wonderfully clean juice. This is then settled in steel tanks before being racked to small 225L French barrels for fermentation. Once alcoholic fermentation is complete, malolactic fermentation is allowed to start naturally in only 50% of the newly purchased barrels.

Domaine des Dieux produces a small range of award winning premium quality wines. These wines are produced with the same fundamentals as the great French and European wines thus we encourage all our wines to be cellar aged in order for them to reach their full potential. The farm was bought in 2002 by two wine lovers with a dream. A combination of good quality grapes much patience and a love of champagne set the stage for Domaine des Dieux to officially become the first producer of MCC in the Hemel en Aarde region. The dream had become a reality.