Radford Dale Vinum Chardonnay (2021)

Two ocean facing sites on the foothills of the Helderberg & Polkadraai hills are used for this Chardonnay. The Polkadraai hills vineyard is 22 years old & picked earlier for freshness, with the Heldeberg site, at 11 years of age, picked later for palate weight & texture. The soils are crunchy, granite derived Clovelly. We believe this brings a mineral character to the wine. The sites have uninterrupted views to the sea & the maritime breeze brought in by the south easter. Harvest in 2021 was around 10 days later than the norm, with a smaller crop, but cooler ripening temperatures. We’re thrilled with the concentration & aromatics in this vintage.

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 a combination of 228L and 300L barrels from Burgundian cooperage ranging in age from 3 to 6 years old. Alcoholic fermentation entirely carried out in barrel (only using 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°. Racked out of barrel after 9 months on the lees, assembled and settled with a light bentonite fining and no filtration until bottling.

Salmon with roasted shiitakes and mushroom sauce, poultry, seafood or vegetarian dishes