Capensis Chardonnay, Western Cape

Description

Capensis Chardonnay is a premium South Africa Chardonnay produced from five remarkable vineyards.

Capensis Wines is a relatively new project in South Africa.  It was founded in 2013 and is owned by Barbara Banke, the Chairman and proprietor of Jackson Family Wines who own wine estates across int he globe in Australia, Chile, Oregon, France Italy and, of course, California. The winemaker is Graham Weerts who started out working at Mulderbosch before working a season Chateau de Terrefort-Quancard in Bordeaux whilst also gaining a degree in viticulture, wine science and pomology from the Elsenburg Agricultural College in Stellenbosch in 1996. Graham eventually wound up in Sonoma County and Jackson Family Wines. Capensis is a return home for Graham and the idea behind the project is to produce the very best terroir-expressive Chardonnay that South Africa can produce.  

In the search for the best Chardonnay, the focus of Capensis  has been on the Stellenbosch, Overberg, and Robertson regions in the Western Cape. Philosophically, Capensis is not limited to these regions—the only limitation is the quality of the individual vineyard site.

The estate consists of various vineyards sites. The Fijnbosch Estate vineyard is the “home” vineyard with nearly 20 acres of Chardonnay planted in clay soils on the high-elevation, steep terrain of the Groot Drakenstein mountains in the Banghoek Valley. There are four other vineyards. The oldest, most isolated, and highest-elevation vineyard site in the Capensis blend is the Kaaimansgat (crocodile’s lair) vineyard. The E. Bruwer vineyard consistes of  16 rows of vines rooted in blistered limestone soil, which is very rare in South Africa. The Nooitgedacht vineyard, meaning “gratitude, lies at the foothills of the Helderberg Mountains in the Stellenbosch region. Lastly the Vleiplaas vineyard, meaning “marsh farm”, is located in the western reaches of the Klein Karoo region.

The Capensis Chardonnay 2018 is the following vineyard blend: Fijnbosch 49%, Nooitgedacht 21%, E. Bruwer 10%, Kaaimansgat 10% and Vleiplaas 10%. Aged for 10 months in 100% French oak, 38% new.

The name “Capensis” comes from the latin for “from the cape”.