Vineyard Selection Chardonnay

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

The grapes were harvested between 22 - 24°balling and after crushing the juice was given extended skin contact for at least 12 hours before it was pressed. Only the free run portion of the juice was used for this selection. After 1 day of settling the juice was racked to a fermentation vessel where we inoculate with a slow fermenting yeast strain. The juice was racked into barrel 1 day after inoculation and left to ferment at low temperature until dry.

2019 was an interesting harvest. We had enough winter rain to break the drought but had a heat spell in July that caused uneven budding in most of the Chardonnay vineyards in SA and caused a very small crop. The grapes came from 3 blocks in Stellenbosch and a single block in Robertson. All the Stellenbosch blocks are dryland whilst Robertson only received one small drip irrigation. Careful canopy management was needed to ensure enough growth to ripen bunches. The canopy was tipped early in the season to initiate side shoot growth to protect the bunches against sun burn and to even out growth. The grapes were handpicked early in the morning.

The wine spent a total of 8 months in barrel before blending and bottling. A combination of 60% new and the rest second and third fill 400l French oak barrels were used.