AWOL 2018

Straight single vineyard Chardonnay from Stellenbosch. I don't know how many of you remember the wine “Five Soldiers” from a famous Stellenbosch farm, Rustenburg? It is a premium Chardonnay made up from five vineyards, hence the name.

The Story:

In 2015 the farmer of a farm originally owned by the Rustenberg vineyard family, had a big Chardonnay production and I was able to buy 3/4 of a ton. I made AWOL 2015 - jokingly referring to their famous Rustenberg Five Soldiers Chardonnay - the block that went AWOL. This was the first vintage ever. A pure, early-picked Chardonnay from the Helderberg mountains in Somerset West.

2016 and 2017 were lower production years, and I couldn’t get any of the grapes. But 2018 was again a big production year and I received 1.5 tons. The sad thing is that the vineyard was removed after that harvest. A big winery is now leasing the whole farm and they removed all the vineyards, replanting the whole of the farm. So the 2018 AWOL Chardonnay is the last production ever of this one soldier that went AWOL. 

AWOL was fermented in old French Oak barrels. It spent one year aging on the lees, received a small addition of sulfur and was bottled after 12 months.