Vintage conditions

Spring 2019 saw ideal weather conditions during flower and fruit set, heightening expectations for the upcoming vintage. However, hopes were soon challenged by the atypical and unstable weather presented early in the New Year. Fortunately, dry conditions set in as soon as harvest commenced, with the crop remaining healthy. Volumes recovered slightly from the light 2019 vintage and all-round, unexpectedly positive, fruit-quality was delivered to the cellar

Vinification details

This remote vineyard is planted to Chardonnay clones 76 and 95 – each expressing the site in their own unique way. Once the juices are liberated from the berries, it is left to settle for 10 hours in tank, without the addition of any enzymes. This juice, still containing a fair amount of solids, are transferred to barrel for fermentation. These solids impact the sensory profile and improve mouthfeel. Aiming for increased fruit focus, our traditional 228L barrels are now complemented by a number of 350L barrels. The final blend is racked to tank, following eight month’s maturation and bottled in January 2021.

Tasting video

With winemaker Chris Albrecht.

Vintage conditions

Vintage 2019 will long be remembered for the raging wild fire that swept across the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley on the 11th January – less than three weeks before the first grapes were picked. Bouchard were fortunate not to be majorly impacted and brought in a healthy, yet slightly lighter crop. The reduced yield being the result of milder than normal winter temperatures. Weather conditions remained cool and relatively dry throughout February and March.

Vinification details

Bunches are added to the press intact and the juices extracted from the berries by long and gentle pressing, yielding more clarity and flavour complexities. Fermentation occurs in oak barrels varying in age between new and fifth fill and typically lasts for a week. Thereafter, depending on vintage needs, a proportion of the barrels are prevented from completing malo-lactic fermentation, thus retaining palate freshness and gaining fruit focus. The final blend is racked from barrel following eight months maturation without any stirring of the lees and bottled with a light filtration.

Awards

IWC & IWSC: Gold
Tim Atkin MW: 94 pts

Green credentials

A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Conservation Champion and accredited Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) estate.

Tasting video

With winemaker Chris Albrecht.

Vintage conditions

Yet another low yielding vintage from this very consistent vineyard. Fruit health however proved to be excellent with the smaller bunches providing great flavour concentration. The first pick was as early as the last day in February and continued over the next two weeks.

Vinification details

Bunches were added to the press intact and the juices extracted from the berries by long and gentle pressing, yielding more clarity and flavour complexities. Fermentation took place in oak barrels varying in age between new and fifth fill and typically lasted for a week. Thereafter, a proportion of the barrels were prevented from completing malolactic fermentation, thus retaining palate freshness and gaining fruit focus. The final blend was racked from barrel following eight months’ maturation without any stirring of the lees and bottled with a light filtration.

Awards

Tim Atkin MW: 93 pts
DWWA: Silver
IWSC: Silver

Green credentials

A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Conservation Champion and accredited Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) estate.

Tasting video

With winemaker Chris Albrecht.

Vintage conditions

Low yields, but fortunately one with positive quality results. While the summer was dry the weather remained mild and every opportunity was presented to provide the cellar with exceptional fruit quality, resulting in an excellent wine.

Vinification details

Grapes arrived at the cellar in the early morning after enjoying an overnight cold room treatment. Grapes were then pressed ‘whole cluster’ in order to follow traditional Burgundian winemaking practices. Such whole cluster pressing provides the added complexity of small amounts of flavour from the stalks and skins. The clarified grape juice was allowed to settle before initiating fermentation under controlled conditions. The next phase was to transfer fermenting must to oak casks before point of peak fermentation arrived. The wine was left in barrel (20% new oak) for eight months and finally only removed closer to the moment of preparing for bottling.

Awards

IWC 2019: Silver
Tim Atkin MW: 93 pts

Green credentials

A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Conservation Champion and accredited Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) estate.

Vintage conditions

The Kaaimansgat vineyard is traditionally only ready for harvesting well into the month of March but this time the first grapes from this vintage were collected on 23rd February, the earliest on record. The crop was positively healthy and presented some of the finest fruit seen in a long time!

Vinification details

Grapes were refrigerated overnight and delivered the next day to the cellar where they were cold pressed. Pressing whole clusters was practiced in order to follow old Burgundian traditions which pre-date modern destalking techniques; Bouchard Finlayson believe this allows for greater grape flavour character and better juice extraction. Once the Chardonnay juice was clarified, yeast inoculation took place and the fermenting musts weare transferred to barrel when ferments were 30% underway. All the Chardonnay was barrel fermented with a new French oak complement of 20%.

Awards

IWSC 2018: Silver Outstanding
IWC 2018: Silver
DWWA 2018: Silver

Green credentials

A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Conservation Champion and accredited Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) estate.