Vergelegen Reserve Chardonnay 2011

The wine shows an attractive lemony yellow-green colour with a complex nose of citrus, vanilla, butterscotch, tropical fruit and mineral tones. The palate is long and full with delicate wooding. Complex, powerful yet still elegant.

variety : Chardonnay [ 100% Chardonnay ]

winery : Vergelegen Wines

winemaker : Andre van Rensburg

wine of origin : Coastal

analysis : alc : 13.31 % vol rs : 2.8 g/l pH : 3.26 ta : 6.3 g/l

type : White style : Dry body : Full wooded

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

ageing : Drink over the next five years.

in the vineyard : The designated vineyard for the making of our Reserve Chardonnay is called Korhaan, after one of South Africa's indigenous birds. The vineyard itself is south facing and ±220 metres above sea level. It is protected from the south easter's onslaught by two other vineyards but that does not mean that nature does not throw other curved balls, as in November 2001 the crop was destroyed by hail! The soils are classified as Clovelly which means that their origin is in the Stellenbosch granites. The vineyard is not irrigated and because of the tough growing conditions yields never exceed 6 tonnes per hectare. The 2009 vintage will be regarded as one of the best vintages of all time, very low yields with concentrated fruits and great acidities.

about the harvest: Grapes were whole-bunch pressed with no skin contact.

in the cellar : Grapes were whole-bunch pressed with no skin contact. The juice, with some clarification, was racked into 50% new French oak barrels (Francois Frère, Dargaud & Jaegle) and 50% second-fill and third fill barrels for alcoholic fermentation. The spontaneous onset of fermentation was allowed for and after 3 days the barrels were inoculated with a pure culture yeast strain. Fermentation took approximately 15 days to complete; once the sugar was fermented, all 25 barrels were topped up. Only one-third of the barrels were allowed to complete malolactic fermentation to retain optimum acidity/freshness. The young wine was left on the gross lees for 9 months with regular batonage, then stabilized and bottled on 9 December 2011.

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