About 25% of our 33rd Hamilton Russell Vineyards Chardonnay is still ripening in our oldest vineyards and 2014 looks to be a particularly good year for Chardonnay. It has not been a logistically easy year but Chardonnay has played along beautifully.
We are particularly keen to mark our 1/3rd of a century Chardonnay milestone with a great wine – and given the run of successes for the preceding vintages, the bar has been set very high.
On March 7th both our 2012 and 2013 Chardonnays were awarded a Classic Wine Trophy by a panel of highly experienced French judges, and Hamilton Russell Vineyards shared the overall award for Most Iconic Entry. These two new trophies follow earlier trophies for our 2010 and 2011.
Hamilton Russell Vineyards Chardonnay is also White Wine of the Year (for the second year running) on the South African Wine Index (SAWi) which reviewed over 50 local and international competitions and ratings over a 3 year period to come up with a wine specific score. And our 2012 Chardonnay did particularly well in the 2013 Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of the Year, coming in at number 19 – the first time a South African wine has been in the Top 20. Over 20,000 wines are reviewed over the year and the Top 100 is made up of the most exciting of these. The 2012 also received a John Platter 5 Star rating.
So our previous vintages are “hard acts to follow” but our team is feeling very happy about the 2014 at this stage.
All the best and we greatly look forward to making our 33rd vintage of Hamilton Russell Vineyards Chardonnay available to you in December this year!