Southend Chardonnay

This Chardonnay pairs well with pork, rich fish like salmon or tuna, vegetarian dishes, and poultry.

The vineyard lies directly opposite the Newton Johnson farm in the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, a notably cooler slope with slower ripening. This site produces wines with compact structure, cool fruit flavors, and vibrant, lengthy acidity.

The wine is matured for 11 months in mostly puncheon (500L) and some barrique (228L) barrels produced in Burgundy. Tighter grained oak is preferred for subtle flavor, with longer seasoning and slower, lower temperature toasting. New oak comprises 9% of the final blend. The wine is then blended and kept for further élevage of 5 months in stainless steel. No fining, coarse filtration, and sulfur adjustment before bottling.

Grapes are handpicked and packed into small, shallow crates to limit crushing of the bunches. The day's harvest is cooled down overnight to 8ºC in the winery's refrigerated cold room. The grape bunches are hand-sorted on a conveyor table and fall directly to the press for whole bunch pressing. The best quality juice (approximately 40% of the press yield) is drained directly to barrel, with the balance settled by temperature only (no enzyme used) and racked the next day to barrel for spontaneous fermentation. No sulfur is used in the winemaking, allowing diverse micro-organisms from the grape itself to flourish unrestrained in the fermentation.

Newton Johnson Vineyards is owned and managed by the Newton Johnson family. The farm is based in the upper Hemel en Aarde Valley near the seaside town of Hermanus an hour and a half’s drive out of Cape Town. This is a popular tourist destination famous for some of the most spectacular land-based whale watching in the world lush indigenous fynbos a floral kingdom home to 1500 species and exclusive to the Cape mountain walks and bike trails. Led by Dave a Cape Wine Master with a thesis on Pinot Noir and his wife Felicity (nee Newton) the Newton Johnson family moved to the Upper Hemel en Aarde Valley in 1995 built a cellar and started planting vines shortly thereafter. This enthusiasm for wine and Pinot noir in particular was passed on to and eagerly adopted by his sons Bevan and Gordon. They in turn have taken this family cellar and vineyards to new heights in exploring the nuances of this grape and their vineyards.