Winemaker Notes
A tight, mineral wine with classic Hamilton Russell Vineyards length and complexity. 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
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Gorgeously seductive in the glass, the 2020 Chardonnay immediately offers aromas of citrus pastry cream, butterscotch, nutmeg, crème brûlée and yellow apple panna cotta. Medium-bodied and impeccably balanced, there is a pleasing texture to the mouthfeel, followed by bright acidity that frames the mid-palate. Ending with a long-lingering and inspiring finish, persistent flavors of toasted almonds, citrus blossom and quince skin linger on the aftertaste. It’s a beautiful and delicious wine, one I cannot wait to retry in 10 years' time. Bravo!
-
James Suckling
This has a vibrant nose of jasmine, grapefruit zest, sliced pear, buttered toast and smoked almonds. It’s medium-to full-bodied with bright acidity. Bright, zesty and spicy. Pretty almond notes on the finish. Drink now.
-
Wine Spectator
This white is racy up front, chiseling flavors of melon, nectarine and Mandarin orange into a linear frame, but then expanding on the palate, with lightly silky texture carrying the juicy fruit and expressive accents of pickled ginger, chopped hazelnut, lime blossom and smoke.
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.