Winemag Chardonnay Report points to many standout wines, but

Winemag Chardonnay Report points to many outstanding wines, however

10/2021 Mike Froud Leave a comment

MOST OF the South African wines assessed for Winemag’s 2021 Prescient Chardonnay Report were from grapes harvested in 2020, which the judges felt was “a slightly lesser vintage” relative to 2019 when it comes to this variety, “the wines not having the same fruit concentration”. Their absolute favourites of the 93 Chardonnays submitted by 67 producers were: from Stellenbosch cellars, Delaire Graff Estate Banghoek Reserve 2020 and Neil Ellis Whitehall 2020, Constantia Uitsig Reserve 2020 and the Village 2020 from Elgin producer Paul Cluver – all scored 94/100 (outstanding if not extraordinary), with the latter also a gold medallist at the International Wine Challenge (UK) earlier this year and arguably ‘best bang for your buck’ at R120 a bottle.

On the panel: Winemag editor Christian Eedes (chair) together with retailers Roland Peens and James Pietersen of Wine Cellar, Cape Town. For the full report, click here.