Hamilton Russell Chardonnay 2017
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Product Details
Winemaker Notes
#57 Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2018
A tight, minerally wine with classic Hamilton Russell Vineyards length and complexity. Unusually prominent pear and lime fruit aromas and flavours are brought beautifully into focus by a tight line of bright natural acid and a long, dry minerality. An elegant, yet textured and intense wine with a strong personality of both place and vintage.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A really stylish white with white stones, dried apricots, white blossoms, lemon curd, jasmine and caramelized citrus peel. Medium to full body, some really nice phenolic texture, very zesty acidity and an pinpoint finish.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2017 Chardonnay is classy stuff all the way that's 100% varietal aged mostly in French oak, with small amounts brought up in foudre, ceramic eggs, and stainless steel. Orchard fruits, pineapple, and white flower notes all emerge from the glass. It's medium-bodied, beautifully textured, and seamless on the palate. With beautiful purity, vibrant, integrated acidity, and a great finish, it should keep for a decade or more.
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Wine Spectator
Melon, yellow apple, white peach and quince flavors give this an opulent feel, harnessed by honeysuckle and quinine accents through the finish, showing refinement and length in the end. Drink now through 2021.
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Decanter
Hints of lovely toasty oak on the nose, the palate has great depths of vibrant cool fleshy tropical fruit and an elegant mango length.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
On the nose, the 2017 Chardonnay has all of the classic Chardonnay expressions at its core, showing apples, pears and creamy lemons with soft oak tones of nutmeg and a white-spiced minerality. The palate gives way to a textured and mouth-coating mid-palate with a lemony heart and a long, spiced cinnamon/green apple finish. The aftertaste is grippy, thoughtful and fine. With 71,556 bottles made, this represents a good-quality wine at a competitive price. Give it try!
Other Vintages
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Hamilton Russell Vineyards – one of the most southerly wine Estates in Africa and one of the closest to the sea – pioneered viticulture and winemaking in the beautiful, cool, maritime Hemel-en-Aarde Valley appellation, just behind the old fishing village of Hermanus. Tim Hamilton Russell purchased the undeveloped 425-acre property in 1975, after an exhaustive search for the most southerly site on which to make South Africa’s top cool climate wines from a selection of noble varieties. His son, Anthony Hamilton Russell, who took over in 1991 (finally buying the property in 1994), narrowed the range to only Pinot Noir and Chardonnay and registered Hamilton Russell Vineyards as an Estate, committing to work only with grapes from their terroir. Today, Anthony and his wife Olive, winemaker Emul Ross, and viticulturist Johan Montgomery are completely dedicated to expressing the personality of the Hamilton Russell Vineyards terroir in their wines. Tiny yields and intense worldwide demand keep the elegant, highly individual, estate-grown Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in very short supply.
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.