Winemaker Notes
Best served at 10-12°C, this wine will show excellent when decanted and will reward if cellared optimally for 10 to 15 years.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Instantly impressive with oaky essences that sway with seductive cardamom and lemon pastry cream, the 2021 Leeu Passant Stellenbosch Chardonnay is expressive with yellow apples, toasted almonds and spiced white tea. Medium-bodied, the palate possesses fantastic texture, revealing seductive weight and flavors of lemon yogurt that burst with popcorn kernel essences and layers of citrus. The wine sways with refined oak flavors before concluding with a delightfully mineral-laced finish. Wow, this is spectacular Chardonnay!
Rating: 96+ -
James Suckling
I like the gentle flint, pastry and hazelnut elements here, along with apricots, salted almonds and hints of rosemary. It’s medium- to full-bodied, beautifully flinty and saline making it so fresh and drinkable. Very textural and long. Drink or hold.
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Vinous
From vines in the Helderberg at 420m altitude, the 2021 Chardonnay Stellenbosch is a climactic driven cuvée that grows in a cool and relatively breezy location. It is oxidatively handled in the winery, matured in 225-liter barrels for the first year without SO2, blended, then spends another year in barrel, and finally sulfured after 18 months. It has a focused and intense bouquet with orange pith, orchard fruit, and hints of hazelnut and saffron. The palate is beautifully balanced with a lot of purity. It's a very "sunny" Chardonnay, vivacious, bright and lively, with impressive tension and mineralité percolating through on the finish. Stylish.
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.