Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Chardonnay (100% varietal) is rock solid, with a beautiful freshness in its richer apple, brioche, and toasted nut aromas and flavors. It has medium-body, beautiful purity, a fresh, lively, focused style, and a great finish. It's the purity of fruit that really sets this apart. Bravo.
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Wine Spectator
Bold, with ginger and hazelnut aromas leading the way for ripe yellow apple, quince and pear flavors. This is well-toasted through the finish, but shows enough fruit and freshness for balance. A showy style that pulls it off. 300 cases imported.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
Originally named Franschhoek meaning the “French Corner” because it was home to the influx of French Huguenots, today the valley contains many historic cellars and is an important tourist location because of its proximity to Cape Town.
This valley falls to the southeast of Paarl and is enclosed on three sides by towering mountains. Streams from the slopes flow down to the valley floor, converging to form the Berg River. The area excels in the production of full-bodied reds.