Kershaw Lower Duivenhoks River Chardonnay GPS Series, 2017

An ethereal wine, elegant and fine in texture with layers of spices, passion fruit, lime and lingering nutty and cinnamon flavours. Richard occasionally strays outside of Elgin to find exemplary parcels of vines in other regions for his GPS Series wines. In 2016 he discovered a small parcel of Chardonnay in Lower Duivenhoks River. While most soils in South Africa are based on decomposed granite, Richard was attracted to this vineyard because of its limestone soils. Some 225 kilometres east of Elgin, this is the only wine grower in the region. Grapes were hand-picked in the early morning and whole bunches gently pressed. The juice was gravity-flowed to barrel - no pumps were used at all. Barrels from a small number of artisanal coopers from Burgundy were used with 40% new oak. The juice was left to ferment naturally, and the wine matured a further 12 months in barrel.