Winemaker Notes
An elegantly muscular wine, Bateleur can be enjoyed with leg of lamb and other roasted red meat dishes,as well as with certain cheeses.
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Spectator
This is liberally framed with brioche and warm butter notes, but the mix of yellow apple, green melon and fig flavors is lively enough to absorb them easily, while a lovely flash of verbena adds cut and length on the finish. Drink now through 2021.
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Bateleur Chardonnay begins with expressive aromas of spiced apple, pineapple, sweet corn, toasty oak scents of toasted almonds and cinnamon. Medium to full-bodied, the wine is elegant and complex on the palate, with a balanced structure and focused acidity. Spiced pear and a soft caramelly nuttiness linger on the long finish. This Chardonnay comes from vines that are planted in limestone and clay on a single vineyard site. The wine spent 12 months in brand-new French oak barrels. 4,000 bottles produced.
-
Wine Enthusiast
Aged in new French oak for 12 months, this leads with a pronounced toasty oak character expressed in layers of baking spice, cedar plank-grilled apple, ripe yellow melon, clove-spiked orange and toasted brioche. It’s round and plush in the mouth, with rich flavors of grilled apple, cantaloupe and peach pit that are balanced by ample acidity. It’s a well-balanced and decadent wine for those that like a richer Chardonnay experience.
-
Decanter
Ripe stone fruit, blossom and honey on the nose, with a fresh palate that has a sweet and oily texture. Great, multi-layered wine.
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.
With an important wine renaissance in full swing, impressive red and white bargains abound in South Africa. The country has a particularly long and rich history with winemaking, especially considering its status as part of the “New World.” In the mid-17th century, the lusciously sweet dessert wines of Constantia were highly prized by the European aristocracy. Since then, the South African wine industry has experienced some setbacks due to the phylloxera infestation of the late 1800s and political difficulties throughout the following century.
Today, however, South Africa is increasingly responsible for high-demand, high-quality wines—a blessing to put the country back on the international wine map. Wine production is mainly situated around Cape Town, where the climate is generally warm to hot. But the Benguela Current from Antarctica provides brisk ocean breezes necessary for steady ripening of grapes. Similarly, cooler, high-elevation vineyard sites throughout South Africa offer similar, favorable growing conditions.
South Africa’s wine zones are divided into region, then smaller districts and finally wards, but the country’s wine styles are differentiated more by grape variety than by region. Pinotage, a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault, is the country’s “signature” grape, responsible for red-fruit-driven, spicy, earthy reds. When Pinotage is blended with other red varieties, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah or Pinot Noir (all commonly vinified alone as well), it is often labeled as a “Cape Blend.” Chenin Blanc (locally known as “Steen”) dominates white wine production, with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc following close behind.