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La Vierge’s somewhat garish branding is both a gift and a curse. It allows the label to stand apart from the sometimes stuffy and staid Walker Bay Wine Fraternity, but it also regularly causes consumers to forget to take them seriously. But the fact is that these guys are formidable performers that not only bring a sense of creativity to their winemaking, through some slightly more off-beat wines, but also reliably produce some truly classic Burgundian-style beauties in their Pinots and Chardonnays.

Young winemaker Christo Kotze is an exciting prospect, and someone to watch closely as his experience and maturity begins to catch up with his obviously abundant natural talent.

In this video we discuss a bit about Christo’s career, the estate of La Vierge, the wine in the glass, and explore the possibilities created by performing multiple picks at varying ripeness levels in a vineyard block.

If you have yet to sign up for your Monthly HanDrinksSolo Wine Subscription then you’ll have to hunt this wine down in your own time. But until then, here are my tasting notes and some technical specs:

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👃🏼 The nose is delightfully open, carrying lime zest, green apple, peach fruit, lemon blossom, leesy oatmeal and a puff of chalk dust.

👄 The palate is delightfully concentrated, and also shows an array of fruit expression, all gilded with a touch of oak-inspired cinnamon.

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🔬 Platter 4.5-star rating. 100% Chardonnay. The vineyards are planted in Argillaceous shale, which is a wanky way of saying “Clay Shale. The fruit is taken from a number of aspects; North West, South and South East, which allows a fairly broad range of Solar Radiation levels from block to block. Grapes were harvested in 6 different batches towards the end of February.

ABV 13.37% | Total Acid 6.3g | Residual Sugar 3.0 |