Colour: Crisp, clear and vibrant with hues of lime green and golden straw.
Bouquet: Very typical Chardonnay profile with wafts of fresh lime, butterscotch and mingling tropical fruits. Toasty oak nuances are very subtle in the background with their hints of vanilla.
Taste: Medium-bodied and uncomplicated with the palate confirming what the nose experienced. Creamy citrus dominates initially while the same hints of vanilla show at the end. The crisp acidity results in a clean, refreshing and lingering aftertaste.
Enjoy it on its own or with creamy seafood dishes, roast pork and lightly smoked poultry.
variety : Chardonnay [ 100% Chardonnay ]
winemaker : Guy Webber assisted by Natalee Hamilton
wine of origin : Stellenbosch
analysis : alc : 13.65 % vol rs : 3.80 g/l pH : 3.38 ta : 5.90 g/l so2 : 126 mg/l
type : White style : Dry body : Medium
pack : Bottle size : 0 closure : Screwcap
in the vineyard : Background
Stellenzicht’s Hill&Dale label offers a range of accessibly styled wines with a New World character for international
appeal, created by award-winning winemaker Guy Webber. Despite their being made for early and easy enjoyment,
Webber has eschewed a generic format for these wines, instead choosing to clearly express their origins.
Grapes for the Hill&Dale wines are selected from vineyards within the Stellenbosch region. Extensive vineyard management programmes are in place for each of the vineyards from which the fruit is selected. All aspects of the process are strictly governed so as to comply with not only the standards set for the Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) system, but also with the quality standards set for HACCP and the BRC (British Retail Consortium).
The name for the range was derived from Stellenzicht's Hill&Dale farm, located just outside the town of Stellenbosch. The leaf logo on the label depicts an oak tree leaf, synonymous with the historic university town.
Vineyards (viticulturist: Johan Mong)
The sites on which the selected vineyards were grown vary in location from cool, south-facing slopes to warmer, northwest-facing slopes and vary in altitude from the warmer, low-lying plains to the cool, elevated slopes of the Helderberg and Simonsberg mountains.
All the vines are trellised and are grown predominantly in soils of decomposed granite, although some Table Mountain sandstone and shale are also found on a number of the slopes. The vines are grafted onto nematode-resistant rootstocks and are pruned and trained in a style so as to reduce the yield and optimise the quality of the fruit from which the wine produced.
in the cellar : After destalking and crushing, the juice was separated immediately from the skins. Pure yeast cultures were inoculated into the juice in order to optimise the fermentation process at around 14° to 16° C, which lasted between 18 and 21 days. A combination of French and American oak was used during fermentation to enhance the fullness and character of the variety and to add an extra dimension to the wine's complexity.
After extended lees contact of two months, the wine was allowed to clarify itself naturally under gravity for about two months prior to being blended with a touch of Sémillon to add to the overall freshness of the wine.
Bottling first took place on 30 May 2011 with the total production being slightly more than 10 300 cases (12 x 750ml).