| WINE | Radford Dale | ||||||||
| VARIETAL | Chardonnay | ||||||||
| VINTAGE | 2009 | ||||||||
| APPELLATION | Stellenbosch, South Africa | ||||||||
| ANALYSIS |
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| PRODUCTION | 1315 (12 x 750ml.) cases |
VINEYARDS & HARVEST
3 parcels. The first two, on Ocean-facing, South-easterly & South westerly slopes of the Helderberg Mountain. The vines, grown in Clovely soils (decomposed granite), are mature and virus free, usually yielding 40 hl / ha and providing wonderful fruit depth. The third, a beautiful vineyard hugging the South-Eastern side of Stellenbosch, in the lee of the Helderberg, whose decomposed granite soils provide rare flinty & mineral flavours. The 2009 vintage benefited from high winter rainfall and cooler summer median temperatures than usual. This translated into lower sugars / alcohol and wonderful balance, purity and freshness. The 2009 harvest is recognized in South Africa, as in many regions around the world, as an outstanding vintage.
VINIFICATION
The grapes were all hand-picked at dawn into small lug-bins, chilled in our white wine cellar, then hand-fed over a sorting table. Whole bunch pressed, with the free-run juice settled for two days before being gravity-fed into barrel. Alcoholic fermentation entirely carried out in barrel (mainly natural ambient yeast) for 8 – 10 weeks. Cellar maintained very cold at about 10° Celsius (fermentation peaking at about 18 °), then temperature dropped to 7°. Malo inhibited, by the cold. Battonnage applied weekly during the first two months, then monthly for the following nine. Racked out of barrel after 11 months, assembled with a small portion of tank-fermented and matured juice. Settled with a light bentonite fining and no filtration until bottling at the end of January 2010 –the same week in fact that we picked the following Chardonnay crop.
BARRELS
+/-80% of the wine was barrel fermented and matured. Of that, 100% French oak : Allier & Vosges 228 L barrels. 50% 2nd fill ,30% 3rd fill, 10% 4th fill and 10% new. The balance was tank-fermented juice which we blended in at the time of assembling all the barrels into tank.
WINEMAKER'S COMMENTS
With strong influence of Alex Dale’s upbringing in Burgundy, the making of this Chardonnay is also adapted to our particular conditions in this ocean-facing part of the Cape –our mineral geology and temperate maritime climate both lending much to the equation. Restraining acidity, citrus flavours and integrated oaking the introverted side of its character; ripeness and great persistence on the palate the more expansive side. Genuinely mineral, with a crisp lime-citrus edge and an elegant yet intense durability. A Chardonnay striving to be individual, focused on backbone not butter.