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Chardonnay

Chardonnay is the world's most popular white wine grape.

skip It´s homeland is the Burgundy and Champagne region of France, where it produces sublime, complex wines, but it also flourishes extremely well in South Africa, especially in the Paarl region.

Chardonnay ripens easily and produces medium-to-full-bodied wines with rich apple, citrus, and tropical fruit aromas and flavors.

Although it can be vinified as a crisp, fruity quaffing wine, the best, most complex chardonnays are fermented in small oak barrels and put through a secondary, malolactic fermentation, which imparts toasty, buttery characteristics to both the wine´s aroma and flavor.

It also can result in the METHODE CAP CLASSIQUE, South Africa´s answer to Champagne. Bottle fermented and degorged in the traditional French method.
Ideal as an aperitif, with seafood or to celebrate the good times.

Shiraz

Shiraz forms intense wines, with deep violet, nearly black color, chewy texture and richness, with aromas that tend to be more spicy than fruity.

skip It is important to find the right site not only for planting, but certainly also to restrict the growth of the vine and its crop to achieve the best results. As Shiraz likes warm climates it seems well suited to South Africa.

The sunny climate has led to increasing phenolic ripeness at harvest time, and consequently heightened alcohol levels. Rhône varieties don´t mind a bit of sunshine and they tend to cope with the heat a bit better than Cabernet- or Merlot-based wines.

Because Shiraz is emerging as the Cape´s leading red variety, knocking the various Bordeaux grapes from their perch with increasing regularity, you will not be surprised to see that South Africa´s Shiraz wines were recently given a slating in the March 2005 edition of the UK´s Decanter magazine.

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