Restless River Wines Ava Marie Chardonnay 2021

 This chardonnay bears the name of its vineyard, Ava Marie. 2.06ha in size and registered as a Single Vineyard. The vineyard is in the cooler Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, South Africa. Slopes are south and east facing. Shallow top soils vary from iron rich rocks to a light sandy gravel. Below this is decomposed granite clay. Elevation is at 850ft and the cool Atlantic Ocean is 5 km away.

Specific parcels were hand-picked over a period of three weeks in February.The grapes were immediately fed, whole bunch, into our old Vaslin press. After a gentle four hour squeeze, the oxidised juice was settled overnight,

then racked into a variety of different sized French oak barrels (7% new) and two terracota amphora, unlined, made in Tuscany. Natural fermentation took up to 30 days, after which sulphur was added for

the first time, and the wine was aged, sur lie for 12months. The wine was given a light fining before being racked into a stainless steel tank, where it rested for a further three months before bottling. The wine was then bottle aged at 14 Celsius for 18 months before release. Release date November 2023.