EPISODE CHAPTER INDEX:

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00:00 – A RANT in favour of Chardonnay
00:35 – Why does Chardonnay possess the superpowers that it does?
01:14 – A SIMPLE mental image that will explain the COMPLICATED genius of Chardonnay
06:15 – Where does the fruit come from?
06:59 – Things to know about Modern-Day Rickety Bridge
07:30 – Tasting Notes for the Rickety Bridge Chardonnay 2023
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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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TASTING NOTES

👃🏼 Lots of ripe oranges, and touches of sweet peach preserve, mango, nutmeg, even some floral notes.
👄 A full rich palate with more of that sunshine nectarine, the fruit is really broad, and coats the palate…and then on the finish is a far drier spicier sort of citrus pith, so it kinda keeps itself in check. If you had all that fruit and no texture, it would feel like you were drinking peach syrup, and if you had all the texture, but no ripe fruit, then it’d be this sort of lean unpleasant mouth-drying nothingness. the balance of the two is why it works. But it’s not just the texture. the whole thing has quite pronounced acidity, shown through a sort of sweet and sour apricot peach interplay. And the finish combines that sweeter nutmeg spice with a bit of lingering citrus.
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TECHNICAL SPECS

🔬Wine Origin Franschhoek. Chardonnay vineyards ranging from 25 – 29 years old, grown on mild slopes of shale, decomposed granite and alluvial sandy soils on Franschhoek’s Dassenberg mountain. Grapes were harvested by hand in January & February at 21-22° Balling in the early morning hours. This wine was fermented in 500l French oak barrels (30% of blend, 10% new
oak) and Austrian Stockinger foudres (70% of blend, old oak). The must was fermented at 14° – 17° C.The wine was matured for 10-11 months.
Alc. 13.14% | Sugar 2.0 g/ℓ | Acid 6.9 g/ℓ | pH 3.34

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