Thelema “Ed’s Reserve” Chardonnay 2011

This wine shows distinctive characters – a limey, peppery, muscatty flavour – typical of this unique vineyard. This is a very fragrant wine, with lovely yeasty flavours, and a velvety mouth feel and a long finish.

Maturation

The track record of this wine indicates cellaring of up to 8 years is well rewarded.

Food Pairing

The silky texture of this wine will match delicate and fine food such as shellfish or carpaccio.

Winemaker's Comments

All Vintages

Tasting Notes

Viticultural Practices

Varietal	Chardonnay – clone ER 166
Root stock	R99
Soil type	Hutton – decomposed granite
Age of vines	Planted 1985
Plant density	3989 vines per hectare
Trellising	Vertical hedge
Pruning	2-bud spurs every 12cm
Yield	Approximately 4.18 t/ha
Irrigation	Supplementary drip
Vintage	Very hot and dry vintage, resulting in an early start of the picking, with different varieties ripening at the same time. A tough vintage for the winery crews!
Picking date	14th February
Grape sugar	22.5 °B
Acidity	7.31 g/l
pH at harvest	3.26

Winemaking Practices

Yeasts	D522
Fermentation temp	About 19 °C
Method	De-stalk, crush, overnight skin-contact, pressed, settled in horizontal stainless steel tanks and fermented in 228 L French oak barrels, 10% new wood balance 2nd & 3rd fill barrels.
Battonage	Barrels stirred every two weeks to promote yeast autolysis.
Second Fermentation	100% of the bottling completed malolactic fermentation in barrel.

Wine Details

Residual Sugar	2.9 g/l
pH	3.35
Total acid	6.5 g/l
Alcohol	13.05% by volume
Maturation	Drinking well now, and will develop more complexity over the next 3 years