2018 Restless River Ava Marie Chardonnay

Owned and run by Craig and Anne Wessels, Restless River wines are hand crafted on their farm in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, next door to the coastal village of Hermanus in the Western Cape. With vines planted in 1998, Restless River Vineyards has some of the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. The soils are extremely diverse, resulting in each small block being unique and the valley itself well renowned for its cooler climate where it sits 5km from the Atlantic Ocean offering cooling influences and combined with the vineyards at 250m, the temperature is a further couple of degrees cooler.

Roughly only 1000 cases of this Chardonnay are produced every year which results in special, elegant, somewhat rebellious wine that has its own distinctive personality and character shaped by the growing season.

Tasting Note:
This is a classically structured wine which will please any lover of white Burgundy with its crystalline and tangy acidity, generous green and yellow citrus fruit, pink grapefruit, crunchy green apple and lemon curd. The intricate mineral flintiness and an intensity of lemon and green melon notes with a long, persistent, and noticeably concentrated finish this wine offers a lot of drinking pleasure.
In true form the 2018 certainly carries on the Ava Marie tradition of freshness, bright acidity and wonderfully focused purity.