Chardonnay

Full flavoured dishes such as lobster, tuna, chicken and pork.

Severe weather fluctuations during bud break and flowering, followed by cool windy conditions contributed to less and uneven bunches and smaller berries. White wines have shown good acidity and balanced flavour profiles while reds, despite the challenging season, have shown elegance.

After fermentation the wine is topped and left on the lees with regular lees stirring for 10 months. Only partial malolactic fermentation was allowed to occur in order to retain the natural acidity and balance in the wine. The barrels were all French oak 228 litre barrels of which 35% were new the rest were older barrels. The wine was bottled in December 2019.

The grapes are de-stemmed, crushed and pressed to stainless steel tanks for cold settling overnight. The clarified juice is then racked to a holding tank where we inoculate with a selected yeast strain & nutrients, homogenise the tank, take the juice down to barrel for fermentation.

In 1983 Gyles Webb and his wife's family purchased a run-down fruit farm at the top of the Helshoogte Pass in Stellenbosch where they established Thelema Mountain Vineyards. At a time when the South African wine scene was focused on quantity rather than quality Webb was a trailblazing pioneer on a mission to craft world-class wines. Construction began on the winery in 1987 and Thelema produced its first vintage in 1988. Situated on the slopes of the Simonsberg Thelema occupies mainly south-facing aspects that afford spectacular views of the Simonsberg Drankenstein and Jonkershoek mountains. Elevations ranging from 370 to 640 meters above sea-level make the 157-hectare estate one of the coolest and highest wine farms in Stellenbosch.