GPS Lower Duivenhoks River Chardonnay

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

Grapes were hand-picked in the early morning, placed into small lug baskets and tipped directly into a press before being gently whole bunch pressed up to a maximum of 0.6 bar or until a low juice recovery of 615 litres per ton was obtained using our Willmes Sigma 5 press. The juice gravity-flowed directly to barrel without settling. The unclarified juice had no enzymes or yeast added to it and therefore underwent spontaneous fermentation until dry, with malolactic discouraged.

This area does not exhibit the sharp division between winter and summer rainfall as seen in most of the other wine making regions and in 2019 this proved to be the case with a fair bit of rain falling in the harvest month of Feb. This rain also tends to come from strong South Easterlies and even when they are not bearing rain the weather can be quite overcast with high humidity. Although this does keep the temperatures down, and ensures a slow steady ripening, one must keep an eye open for rot and deciding when to harvest is especially important for this vineyard.

The wine rested in barrel for 4 months prior to judicious sulphuring and a further 7 months’ maturation in barrel before racking, blending and bottling.