Lourensford Limited Release Chardonnay 2019

Harvest Description

The 2019 harvest was our most challenging harvest to date. The preceding three year drought has been the driest years in recorded history in the South African Wine producing regions. The effects of which could still be seen in our vineyards during this harvest. Fortunately due our unique topography and we had enough water for all the normal requirements of our vines during and after harvest. Apart from that we also experienced extreme weather conditions with a heat wave towards the end of winter leading to pre-mature budding of the early varietals. We also experienced cool temperatures and higher than normal rainfall during February and early March, putting a lot of pressure on the disease control of the vines. It has been a harvest like no other where we visited all the vineyards at least once or twice a day to monitor the ripeness and determine the perfect harvest window. Due to the weather conditions the crop levels were a little bit less than normal, but our overall quality is deemed very high as much of the loss in overall volume was due to smaller berries and bunches which, conversely, should lead to a greater concentration of flavour in the 2019 wines. The harvest date was on 15 March 2019.