Winemaker Notes
Bon Vallon has a brisk and clean freshness leading into a wide spectrum of classic flavors including citrus, wild flowers and grilled nuts, with a nuanced minerality on the aftertaste.
The succulent palate structure makes this an ideal food wine, superb with oysters, cream based pasta dishes, light curries as well as roast pork and veal dishes.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Bon Vallon Chardonnay offers vibrant tropical fruit, guava and underripe pineapple along with aromas of peaches and pears on the nose. The wine is medium-bodied and slightly leesy on the palate, without the presence of oak, ending with a good, clean and correct finish that is moderate to long. This was made in stainless steel tanks to keep the freshness and vibrancy of the Chardonnay. 15,000 bottles produced.
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Wine Enthusiast
There’s a faint straw and toasted challah character in the background of this light and bright wine, with additional notes of dried apple skin, orange and lime zest, white carnation and chalky limestone. The palate is bright and nervy, with a great line of acidity that keeps the palate fresh and lifted through the mouthwatering finish. It’s well balanced and delicious, with a lingering lime zest flourish.
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Decanter
Green olive, cream cracker and orange peel aromatics. Ripe stone fruit and blood orange notes in the mouth. Appealing in its simplicity - not trading on oak because there isn’t any. Light, dancing very prettily on its toes.
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.
Within the Breede River Valley in South Africa, Robertson is a warm and dry winegrowing region notable for its white wines. The region is home to an increasing number of estates and cooperatives.