2022 Creation Estate The Art of Chardonnay

The Art of Chardonnay is the star player among Creation Estate's chardonnays. The wine owes its complexity to the fact that the grapes come from a specific part of a vineyard. After harvest, the grapes are pressed and the juice is fermented in oak barrels at a temperature of 20 degrees. The wine then matures for 8 months in wood, of which 40% is new. Bâtonnage - the shuffling of the yeast cells - takes place every two weeks. This makes the wine rounder and gives the wine extra complexity. A pure class wine with great storage potential (ten to fifteen years).

This is without a doubt the most South African Burgundian there can be and we dare to challenge that blindly 9 out of 10 people will judge this as a very expensive Burgundy. From the first sniff and sip you know that The Art of Chardonnay is special. The nose of the glass fills with all the high-quality Chardonnay notes you would expect from a top bottling: delicate apples, softly spiced pears, roasted hazelnuts with nuanced cinnamon and caramel spices float effortlessly in the glass. On reaching the palate the wine shows lively and youthful, with a balanced structure that indicates that they have taken the time to get it right. The use of French oak is clearly present here. With a long aftertaste and a full body, this wine is of excellent quality. Certainly quite expensive, but this level can compete with the more expensive top Burgundies and Chardonnays from Napa Valley. Only around 4,500 bottles were made. Enjoy it for the next 10-15 years.

About Creation Estate

When Jean-Claude (JC) and Carolyn Martin took on the challenge of starting a winery in a remote corner of the Walker Bay Wine Region in 2002, it was quite exciting. Vines had never been planted here before, but JC and Carolyn - both descendants of well-known wine families - were determined and convinced of the area's potential. Together they founded Creation Estate in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. Five years later, in 2007, the first harvest took place and they equipped the cellar with the best equipment from Germany, France and Switzerland. Since then they have been working hard. Not only with their quality wines, the tasting room has also made a name for itself.

Today, Creation Estate has 50 hectares of vineyards in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. JC and Carolyn's winemaking philosophy is based on “enhancing the beauty of nature.” It is primarily about the quality of the grapes, not about the tricks that can be performed in the cellar. “Winemaking is a delicate art that requires restraint to capture the nuances of its origin,” said JC Martin. The terroir is important at Creation Estate. Not surprising, because the combination of higher altitude vineyards and the proximity of the Atlantic Ocean creates a unique microclimate in Walker Bay. In addition, JC Martin works with wild yeast cells instead of commercially developed ones, read more about this on our news page.

In 2019, the municipality of Overstrand Hermanus in South Africa was awarded the status 'Creative City status for Gastronomy' by UNESCO! This is one of only 10 cities worldwide and the first on the African continent to receive this distinction. For Creation winery, and other many individuals and boutique producers from the region, this is a tribute to the contribution they make to achieving sustainable development goals.

About Hemel-en-Aarde Valley

Creation Estate is located in the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge, a sub-area within the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley. It is located about twenty kilometers from Hermanus, the coastal town on Walker Bay that is also known as the 'whaling capital' of South Africa. The Atlantic Ocean not only ensures that the whales enjoy floating around here, it also provides an ideal climate for wine growing. It is warm there, but it rarely gets warmer than thirty degrees in the growing season. This is due to the fresh sea breeze and the fact that the Creation Estate vineyards are slightly higher than most vineyards in the area. The grapes are given the opportunity to ripen optimally, but retain their fresh acidity thanks to the cool nights. The soil also plays an important role in this. The vineyards have a clay-derived slate soil called Bokkeveld. It prevents water stress and makes the vines less vigorous, which in turn contributes to the slow ripening of the grapes (due to the slow release of groundwater).

In short, Creation Estate has a unique terroir in the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge. They know how to translate this into full, but at the same time elegant wines with ripe fruit aromas, fresh acidity and beautiful minerality.