Chardonnay

Best paired with seafood platters and whole baked cheeses with rosemary and garlic.

The grapes are selected from top growers in Stellenbosch. A combination of soil, climate, clones and vine age determine the vineyard blocks selected. With meticulous viticulture and a focus on canopy microclimate and soil health, we try to ensure that each vineyard can express itself to its full extent. Vineyard blocks are vinified separately to determine their quality and style, ensuring that their unique character is understood and shown.

25% New French Oak, 25% Older French oak, 50% Stainless Steel Tank. 4 Months in French oak barrels, then blended with the stainless steel portion. Thereafter 6 months on the lees in lined concrete tanks.

Hand selected grapes were delicately pressed as whole bunches and then fermented in steel tanks and oak barrels (50% was inoculated with a yeast and 50% wild yeast). Malolactic fermentation was inhibited to ensure a firm acidity and retention of the fruit flavours.

Le Riche Wines is situated on the slopes of the Helderberg Mountain in close proximity to the historic town of Stellenbosch. The winery was designed to replicate our previous winery in Jonkershoek which was built in 1911. With old style open top concrete fermentation tanks mixed with a modern minimum intervention wine making approach the winery provides a platform to create ultra premium red wines in a classic South African style. Production is 8000—6 cases a year with the Reserve range consisting of only about 1000 cases. The wines are rare but worth sourcing. Le Riche Wines was founded by Etienne le Riche in 1996 and is now run as a family concern. Coming from an illustrious career in the South African wine industry Etienne decided to create a winery where he could express the cultivar he had grown to love and respect Cabernet Sauvignon. The approach was simple to illustrate the nuances of Stellenbosch Cabernets as best possible. Preferring not to be inhibited by estate classification he chose to select grapes from the best possible terroirs Stellenbosch had to offer. The resulting wines have shown great elegance and class consistently proving to be of superb quality and maturation potential.