A cool climate terroir driven wine. Light straw in colour. Notes of chalky limestone, fresh fruit salad and trifle develop into a rich lemon-custard Danish and toasted almond finish. A Chardonnay experience.

The grapes were handpicked in the early morning on 10th March 2016 into 18kg lug boxes at a Balling of 23.2°. Once picked the grapes were placed in cold storage for overnight cooling to a temperature of 4°C. The following day the grape bunches were hand sorted before being put straight into the press for whole bunch pressing up to 1.2 Bar. Thereafter the juice is moved to tank where it remained untouched for one to two days and allowed to settle. The juice was then racked off its lease and allowed to heat up naturally before being inoculated with Lallemand ICV D21 yeast at 30g/hl and then moved to barrel for fermentation to take place for nineteen days. The lees was stirred every day for two weeks directly after fermentation and then twice a week for three months thereafter. The wine was then racked off its lees, given a light sulphuring and allowed four months maturation before being given a light filtration and bottled.

Winemaker : Reino Thiart

Whalehaven is the third oldest wine producer in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. Carefully crafting wines since 1995. Galileo Galilei said it best, “Wine is sunlight, held together by water”.
Named after the protective bay that shelters breeding Southern Right whales in the cool Cape winter months, Whalehaven is a boutique winery situated in Hemel-en-Aarde, just outside Hermanus, that creates a delightful array of wines that intrigue and tantalise the palate. Our artisan winery offers an array of hand crafted wines and produces exceptional Merlot, Cabernet Franc as well as site-specific Chardonnay and Pinot Noir