Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2016 Reserve Chardonnay has an even better nose than the 2015: lemon sherbet, yellow flowers and freshly sliced white peach bursting from the glass, augmented by a hint of tinned apricot. This is irresistible. The palate is well balanced, very expressive with a superb line of acidity. This is an exuberant Chardonnay that barely knows what to do with all that nascent energy. Carl van der Merwe suggested that the 2015 Reserve Chardonnay might have greater longevity. You know, I suspect this might have a longer arc.
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Wine Spectator
Ripe and fresh, featuring yellow apple and pear flavors lined with kiwifruit, green almond and green plum notes that give this extra range. Shows a hazelnut flash through the finish, with racy acidity. Drink now through 2020.
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James Suckling
Preserved lemons, cooked apples, white flowers, vanilla and cloves. Medium-bodied, zesty and linear with pretty acidity and a creamy finish.
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.
South Africa’s most famous wine-producing district, Stellenbosch, surrounds the historic town with the same name; fine winemaking here dates back to the late 1600s. Its valleys of granite, sandstone and alluvial loam soils between the towering blue-grey mountains of Stellenbosch, Simonsberg and Helderberg have the capacity to produce beautiful wines from many varieties. The climate is warm Mediterranean, tempered by the cool Atlantic air of nearby False Bay.
Perhaps most well-known for its Pinotage and Bordeaux blends, Stellenbosch also produces noteworthy wines from Syrah, Chenin blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon blanc. The district’s wards—Banghoek, Bottelary, Devon Valley, Jonkershoek Valley, Papegaaiberg, Polkadraai Hills and Simonsberg-Stellenbosch—all produce distinctive wines from vines with relatively low yields.