Meerlust Chardonnay 2020

Very bright, polished platinum with green, vivacious hue. Complex, appealing nose with pear, citrus and floral notes developing into lemon cream, oatmeal, and marzipan richness. On the palate the wine is medium bodied and linear but retains generous focused citrus fruit flavours with sleek, balanced, and crisp acidity. The wine remains vivacious and fresh on the finish with clean citrus fruit and stony minerality. The wine has a long, very pleasant lingering finish. Decanting and exposure to air opens the aroma and palate of the wine.

Juice was settled overnight and racked with some solids still visible in the juice after racking. Alcoholic fermentation was done in barrel of which 61 % were new and 39% second fill 300 litre barrels. Barrels were inoculated with selected Chardonnay yeast, while some barrels underwent un-inoculated, spontaneous fermentation.  After fermentation, the wine was given a racking to remove heavy lees and returned to barrel for malo- lactic fermentation.  The wine was barrel matured for 9 months before bottling.