Lismore Chardonnay 2020

Owned by Californian winemaker, Samantha O’Keefe, Lismore is the pioneer of Wine of Origin ‘Greyton’, and has been designated by SAWIS (South African Wine Industry Information & Systems), recognizing the unique terroir of this region. Unfortunately the Lismore estate was razed by wildfire on 16 December 2019. Luckily though, the main wine stock was held in Stellenbosch, so Samantha had something to keep her business afloat, though there would be no Lismore 2019 estate wines on the market. She made 2020 wine from grapes from different vineyards, as well as her own estate chardonnay.
This very special chardonnay was made in the style of a traditional Burgundian Chablis. 30% of the grapes comes from Lismore’s vineyards in Greyton, planted in decomposed shale over clay at 300m in the foothills of
the Sonderend Mountain Range . The other 70% of the grapes comes from Kaaimansgat in Elandskloof as well as grapes from the Upper Hemel en Aarde valley. The grapes were picked at optimal ripeness and whole bunch pressed, slowly extracting the juice The juice was cold settled for forty-eight hours and was racked into 225, 300 and 500 litre older Burgundian barrels for fermentation and ten months of maturation. 5% new French oak was used in this vintage.