Every wine tells a story, Rijk Melck believes, and his estate on the slopes of Stellenbosch’s Simonsberg Mountain has a host of tales from its 300-year existence. Wherever you are on the estate you cannot help being moved by a sense of the many generations that have lived and worked here. At Muratie, their passion for preserving their rich heritage is matched only by the way in which they produce their fine wines.
For Rijk and wife Kim, there could be only be one name for their Chardonnay, made from the free-run juice of hand-harvested, whole-bunch pressed grapes, fermented naturally and then matured in 500L French oak for nine months: the name of their baby daughter, Isabella. In this fresh and elegant wine with its peach-blossom fragrance, the aim is to evoke those bedtime butterfly kisses of their beautiful baby girl.