Meerlust Chardonnay, Stellenbosch

Description

Meerlust Chardonnay is considered, by many, to be one of the finest South African Chardonnay’s from one of the Cape’s most prestigious wineries.

Meerlust Estate has a long history and the Myburgh family have been making wine at the estate for eight generations since 1756. Current owner Hannes Myburgh (who studied winemaking at Geisenheim, Germany and Chateau Lafite) continues to maintain the family tradition to the art of fine wine making. The Estate is ideally positioned for the production of characterful and complex wines – there are cooling ocean breezes and evening mists in the summertime which allow the grapes to ripen slowly and thereby gaining full, complex, rich and robust varietal characteristics. 110 hectares of vineyards are planted, mainly with red varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir. The estate is most famous for their Cape blend, Meerlust Rubicon.

The fruit for Meerlust Chardonnay is sourced from 6 different vineyard blocks situated on the Estate. The oldest vineyards were planted in 2007 on predominantly decomposed granite soils giving a greater fruit expression. Vineyards planted on the lower weathered shale and greywacke soils express more citrus and delicate fruit aromas. The vineyards are mostly planted on Northeast and west facing slopes. Due to the prevailing breeze from the cool False Bay coast, located 5km away the temperature during the growing season is more moderate.

The 100% Chardonnay grapes for Meerlust Chardonnay are picked by hand. There is partial whole bunch pressing and immediate transfer of free run to 300 litre tight grain Allier French Oak Barrels, 50 % new barrels, 50 % second fill for fermentation. After alcoholic fermentation the wine is racked to remove the heavy lees, returned to the barrels for malolactic fermentation where it is then aged prior to bottling.

Winemaker is Wim Truter.