Crystallum Ferrum Chardonnay 2024

This cuvée comes from a single vineyard at Shaw's Mountain, just outside the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, near Hermanus. Classified as WO Overberg, on the Cape South Coast, the site belongs to the Crystallum estate. The climate is cool, under the direct influence of the ocean and sea winds, which preserves a lively acidity and the precision of the Chardonnay.

The grapes are picked by hand, then whole-bunch pressed. The juice ferments spontaneously with its native yeasts in 500- and 600-litre barrels, 20% of them new oak. Ageing lasts 10 months in the same barrels, to give the wine texture without masking the purity of its fruit.

This wine reveals notes of lemon, grapefruit, pear, white flowers, fynbos, lemongrass, light honey and gunflint. Citrus and flowers come with a fine mineral reduction. The palate is light, taut and vibrant, of great finesse, with a long, slightly bitter finish reminiscent of citrus peel.

The first vines were planted in South Africa by Dutch settlers in the 1650s, although wine production did not really begin to take off until the arrival of French Protestants, in the 1680s, with their skills and their knowledge of viticulture. Stellenbosch is also a historic wine region, with the first vineyards being planted there in the 1690s.



Today South Africa is one of the most important wine producing countries in the southern hemisphere. With over 300 years of winemaking history, it is often described as a bridge between the Old and New Worlds. The majority of wines are produced using New World winemaking techniques, but they often have more in common stylistically with their Old World counterparts. Since the end of apartheid, South African wine has received international attention and acclaim for its wide variety of styles.



South Africa's wine industry is spread across the lush and rugged landscape of the Western Cape. Here, the abundance of mountains, valleys and plateaus allows winemakers to produce a wide variety of styles. Vineyards can also be found in the Orange River region of the Northern Cape, where the flat, arid landscape is dominated by the Kalahari Desert. Most of South Africa's wine regions have a Mediterranean climate, strongly influenced by the meeting of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.



The country's signature grape variety is Pinotage, an indigenous cross of Pinot Noir and Cinsaut that is rarely found in quantity in other wine-producing countries. Shiraz (Syrah) is also widely planted, as are Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (often combined in a Bordeaux blend). South African Chardonnay, Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc have become popular internationally in recent years.