Glenelly Glass Collection Unwooded Chardonnay 2024
Bright, brilliant pale straw with a subtle green hue. Aromatic nose of citrus, white peach, wildflowers and grilled nuts over a delicate mineral spine. The palate is crisp and refreshing with focused stone-fruit and lemon-zest flavours, a saline mid-palate and a clean, dry finish. Excellent as an aperitif or with seafood, salads and roast chicken.
Paul Cluver Seven Flags Chardonnay 2023
The Paul Cluver Seven Flags Chardonnay is a great expression of what both Elgin and the the Paul Cluver Estate can produce. Just like its Pinot Noir partner, the Paul Cluver Seven Flags Chardonnay undergoes both vineyard and barrel selection, in a quest by Paul Cluver to create the ultimate expression of the variety. The 2021 vintage shows a light-yellow green hue, and the nose is expressive with notes of fresh citrus zest which is complemented by stone fruit and hints of oak. The palate is an exciting combination of crisp citrus fruit with great complexity, concentration, and hints of oak in the background. The wine is elegant with a long and lingering finish.
International Wine Challenge 2023:
IWC Sustainable Trophy & International Chardonnay
97/100 Trophy & South African White Trophy
97/100 International Wine Challenge 2023: Gold Medal
95/100 Decanter World Wine Awards 2023: Gold Medal
Food pairing: Fish, poultry, pork and game bird dishes work well with this wine. It works particularly well with creamy pastas and salmon dishes. The good acidity and balance between wood and fruit keeps the wine from being overly rich and consequently, great without food too. Mussel soup is a perfect match.
Glenelly Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2022
The Glenelly Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2020 has floral aromas with baked apple, singed citrus rind and toasted chestnuts. A harmony of apple notes, citrus, heather and spiced cinnamon butter are on the palate which is all supported by a vivid acidity. The flavours of pastry and toasted fruit linger to a mouth-watering finish.
Hamilton Russell Chardonnay 2024
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.
Accolades
95 Points - Tim Atkin MW South Africa Special Report 2024
95 Points - Julie Sheppard, Decanter March 2024
94 Points "Peak performance" - David Lawrason, Wine Align, Canada, July 2024
93 Points - James Suckling
95 Tim Atkin MW, SA Special Report 2024
Hamilton Russell's excellent Chardonnay has been a benchmark for as long as I can remember, a Cape calling card for the variety on international markets. This is typically intense, complex and layered, with notes of buttered croissant, stone fruit and honey, well-judged underlying freshness and acidity and stylishly handled 24% new wood.
95 Julie Sheppard, Decanter, March 2024
This has creamy citrus aromas, layered with pear, bright lime and nutty hints. Poised and precise palate; textured with generous silky ripeness to the citrus fruit. Already layered and complex, but with more to come, this is a beautiful Burgundian style, for a fraction of the price of Burgundy.
93 James Suckling
An elegant chardonnay that has aromas of fresh apricots, spiced apples, sourdough, licorice and cedar. It’s medium- to full-bodied, deliciously spicy and toasty, with bright acidity and a long, pristine finish.
Kershaw Clonal Selection Chardonnay 2021
Kershaw Clonal Selection Chardonnay 2021 has a precise entry, with incisive acidity with mineral and chalk texture. A lifted mid-palate is filed with apple, spiced poached pear and white pepper. A scented Freesia is running down the spine of the wine giving elegance to the wine.
100% Chardonnay made from Dijon clones CY96, CY95, CY76 and the Entav clone CY548.
Hartenberg The Eleanor Chardonay 2019 Magnum
Hartenberg The Eleanor Chardonnay 2019 Magnum
An expressive bouquet with lime zest and stone fruit at its core. Elegantly integrated oak shows notes of butterscotch opening up to a roasted nut aroma and a clean, chalky minerality. An initial bright acidity on the palate balances the rich and creamy texture of the wine with the peach and lime note following through to a lingering, toasty finish.
95 points Tim Atkin
Hartenberg The Eleanor Chardonay 2022
Hartenberg The Eleanor Chardonnay 2022
Pale honeyed yellow in the glass, offering flinty aromas layered with notes of peaches and cream. The palate is richly creamy, balanced by a crisp finish with fresh acidity. Flavours of walnut and apricot add depth, creating a wine that is deeply nuanced and impressive.
95 points Tim Atkin
92 points James Suckling
4½ stars Platter’s SA Wine Guide
Kara-Tara Chardonnay 2023
Kara-Tara Chardonnay 2023 is made with grapes from Stellenbosch, Paarl, Overberg and Elgin. Partially fermented in new oak barrels, this wine has a firm acidity and balances a nuttiness with stone fruit flavours.
94/100 Greg Sherwood MW
After the highly acclaimed 2021, all eyes were on Rudger van Wyk to see what magic he could pull out the hat with the 2022 Kara-Tara release. Made from grapes sourced from four sites in three regions, namely Stellenbosch, Elgin and the Overberg, this wine has all the trappings of a cool climate masterpiece clearly moulded on a fresh vintage of Pouilly Fuissé or Saint Veran in Burgundy. Matured for eight months in barrels utilising 10% new oak, the wine reveals an attractively perfumed nose of honey suckle, white citrus, lemon verbena, popcorn, grated lime peel, zingy lemongrass and gentle herbal notes that intermingle with subtle leesy, biscuity nuances. On the palate there are deliciously racy acids that invigorate the taste buds, framing an intense yellow citrus fruit and oatmeal concentration that melts into a stony river pebble minerality. Fabulous laser sharp texture with a fine, linear cool climate precision, majestic crystallinity and a classically restrained finish. White Burgundy drinkers are going to be bowled over by its light touch 12.5% alcohol as well as its decidedly old world demeanour. Drink this on release and over the next 3 to 5+ years.
Meerlust Chardonnay 2024
Meerlust Chardonnay 2023 is very bright pale-yellow colour with green, vivacious hue. Complex, appealing nose of apricot, peach, pear, lemon zest and floral notes with hints of toasted almonds. On the palate the wine is well structured and linear but retains generous focused stone fruit flavours with sleek, balanced, and crisp acidity. The wine remains vivacious and fresh on the finish with clean citrus fruit underpinned by minerality. The wine has a long, very pleasant lingering finish.
93/100 Tim Atkin
Now sourced from parcels on shale as well as granite soils, the Meerlust Chardonnay is a lot fresher and less worked than it used to be. Sourced from six different blocks, it has apricot and citrus fruit flavours, a hint of wax and sourdough bread and subtle toasty oak. 2023-26
Holden Manz Chardonnay 2020
The Holden Manz Chardonnay 2020
Produced using grapes from two cool climate sites. One is next to the cool ocean breezes of False Bay and the other high on the slopes of the Simonsberg. The berries are picked in the cool of the early morning then chilled to 5ºC before being whole bunch pressed using the “champagne” cycle. Clarified juice is wild fermented 50% in new 225 litre French oak barrels and 30% in second fill barrels. Batonnage only starts when two thirds of the fermentation is completed. The wine is bottled approximately 12 months after fermentation with around 10% of the wine passing through malolactic fermentation.
Ataraxia Chardonnay 2023
Ataraxia Chardonnay 2023
An epitome of South African wine, this soil-driven Chardonnay is New World in provenance but Old World in stylistic leaning. Athletic in structure, it effortlessly manages to be both subtle and intense. It is vibrant and spicy, with alluring creamy notes. An assertive mineral acidity beautifully balances a compelling intensity of fruit. There is a surprising touch of “grip” to the finish deftly rounded off with complex savoury, briny, and flinty notes. A stylish, world-class Chardonnay.
Iona Elgin Highlands Chardonnay 2023
Iona Elgin Highlands Chardonnay 2023
Stylish and Burgundian with bright citrus, white stone fruit, oyster shell minerality and a hint of brioche. The purity of fruit combined with well-judged oak and bright fresh acidity result in a wine that is layered and complex with a lingering finish
Christian Eedes – Winemag
Despite a wet and cool growing season, Eedes praised the wine’s restraint and elegance:
Rating: 93/100
Tasting Notes: Orchard blossom, pear, lime, lemon, and herbs.
Palate: Medium-bodied with racy acidity and a pithy finish—a poised, very elegant vintage.
