Glenelly Glass Chardonnay 2023

As its name suggests, the Glenelly 2023 Stellenbosch Glass Collection Unoaked Chardonnay (in a screw-cap bottle) is a simple, entry-level white to drink with easy food partings. Fruit is blended from estate vines with outside grapes purchased in Stellenbosch. The grapes are hand-picked, destemmed, pressed and settled. Thanks to a good strain of yeasts, fermentation is natural. The wine stays on the lees for four to five months (depending on the vintage), giving it slight reduction and lots of inner tension. The bouquet reveals fresh tones of honeysuckle, green melon and crisp apple. This is a fun-drinking Chardonnay with a pretty mineral character.

Located at the foothills of the Simonsberg Mountain, Glenelly shares important DNA with Bordeaux thanks to founder May-Éliane de Lencquesaing, or Lady May, former owner and managing director of the Pauillac winery Château Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande. Her South African estate counts 57 hectares nestled into a beautiful amphitheater with soft slopes and morning light before the sun sets in the west. With decomposed granite soils, the vineyards are between 130 and 280 meters in elevation and remain cool, with temperatures that drop one degree Celsius every 10 meters in elevation. The surrounding mountains serve to funnel and channel the winds, with moderating effects on plant growth.

I met with CEO Nicolas Bureau, Cellar Master Dirk Van Zyl and Viticulturist Heinrich Louw on a beautiful spring day. Given the season, the talk of the day was cover crops. Heinrich Louw implements what he calls "bottom-up soil management," which is a long-term commitment to stop plowing in order to avoid breaking up the soil structure and planting special cover crops. The four basic cover crops are grains (to catch carbon and help with soil structure), lupins (as a nitrogen fixer), brassicas (like radishes, with taproots that help against soil compaction) and vetches (or purple flowers that add nitrogen and act as weed suppressants).