Vinum Chardonnay

Salmon with roasted shiitakes and mushroom sauce.

Two ocean facing sites on the foothills of the Helderberg & Polkadraai hills are used for this Chardonnay. The Polkadraai hills vineyard is 22 years old & picked earlier for freshness, with the Heldeberg site, at 11 years of age, picked later for palate weight & texture. The soils are crunchy, granite derived Clovelly. We believe this brings a mineral character to the wine. The sites have uninterrupted views to the sea & the maritime breeze brought in by the south easter. Harvest in 2021 was around 10 days later than the norm, with a smaller crop, but cooler ripening temperatures. We’re thrilled with the concentration & aromatics in this vintage.

Racked out of barrel after 9 months on the lees, assembled and settled with a light bentonite fining and no filtration until bottling.

The grapes were all hand-picked at dawn into small lug-bins, chilled in our white wine cellar, then hand-fed over a sorting table. Whole bunch pressed, with the free-run juice settled for two days before being gravity-fed into a combination of 228L and 300L barrels from Burgundian cooperage ranging in age from 3 to 6 years old. Alcoholic fermentation entirely carried out in barrel (only using natural ambient yeast) for 8–10 weeks. Cellar maintained very cold at about 10° Celsius (fermentation peaking at about 18°), then temperature dropped to 7°.

Founded in 1998 by Alex Dale, Radford Dale set about the Cape in search of exciting vineyard parcels for their chosen specialist varietals. Today, they have two producing wineries. The first is located in Stellenbosch, predominantly focused on sourcing maritime influenced parcels around the Helderberg and Polkadraai. Here, they produce the cult, single vineyard wines of Renaissance Chenin Blanc and Frankenstein Pinotage, and the Radford Dale Vinum range; a set of six wines that consistently overdeliver on style to price. The 2022 vintage marked the maiden release from their own vineyards purchased in Elgin under Radford Dale Organic, with the release of four single varietal Estate wines, the only organic certified vineyards in the region. More recently, they have co-founded South Africa’s first Organic Wine Association. They continue to reintroduce Gamay Noir to the Cape, establishing the first new plantings for some 20 years. It’s a varietal geared up to thrive in warm conditions, and on granite soils. Stylistically, Gamay also embodies Radford Dale’s championing of elegant, refreshing red wines.