Glenelly Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2018

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

The Estate Reserve Chardon­nay by Glenel­ly Estate is bright and crisp in col­or, waft­ing beau­ti­ful scents of quince and cit­rus peel, lime, pear, and but­ter­scotch caramel up to the nose. On the palate, it is lush but bal­anced, with vibrant min­er­al and cit­rus fla­vors that end in a delight­ful­ly tex­tured finish. 

PAIR­INGS

South African Chardon­nays from the Stel­len­bosch region have pride of place in any wine dis­cus­sion. They go beau­ti­ful­ly with the shell­fish from along the coast and are a sushi-lover’s dream. Flaky grilled fish, from hal­ibut to a well-cho­sen salmon — the wine’s acid­i­ty brings out the best in them. It goes well with strong cheeses like Asi­a­go and Har­vati, with well-toast­ed almonds on the side. This is a vegetarian’s wine, too, as this wine will car­ry you through a meal from sal­ad to won­der­ful oven-roast­ed veg­gie med­leys. Of course, fresh, fruity desserts like banana bread or vanil­la pud­ding also love this mild wine!

STEEPED IN SOUTH AFRICAN HISTORY

The Glenel­ly Estate is one of those rare winer­ies twice-born. The orig­i­nal win­ery was cre­at­ed in 1783, dur­ing the set­tle­ment of French Huguenots in South Africa. Elie Miail­he, the orig­i­na­tor of the estate, was grant­ed the title of ​“roy­al wine bro­ker” when the win­ery came into being. The estate passed on to his chil­dren and grand­chil­dren but even­tu­al­ly left the fam­i­ly — until 2003. Grand dame May de Lenc­que­saing recov­ered her family’s old estate at the age of 73 and set about revi­tal­iz­ing the vine­yards. Thus, the new Glenel­ly Estate was born.

Storage Instructions

Store your unopened bot­tle in a cool, dry, and dark place safe from con­stant vibra­tion. Keep your bot­tle hor­i­zon­tal in a wine rack or cel­lar to retain the moist­ness of the cork. The ide­al tem­per­a­ture for stor­age is between 7 to 15°C. Once opened, a bot­tle will be good for 3 to 5 days stand­ing upright in the refrigerator.