Mellasat Chardonnay 2011

Platter’s South African Wine Guide: 3 ½ *
Creamy caramel biscuit, citrus flavor & vibrant acidity, rounded and full. Perfect for seafood. 

The grapes were pressed by pneumatic bag press and juice settlement undertaken for 2 days. The must was then transferred to 300li French (30% second fill/70% third fill) oak barrels. Yeast (Laffort VL2) was inoculated then fermented for approximately 28 days at an average temperature of 17 degrees C. Malolactic fermentation was partially encouraged in barrel after the alcoholic fermentation and the lees stirred (batonnage).

Some gelatine fining was also used to clarify the wine prior to bottling.

No filtering of the wine was undertaken except at bottling when a medium filtration (split AF70/110) was undertaken.