Goedverwacht, Great Expectations, Chardonnay, Robertson, 2021

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Goedverwacht, Great Expectations, Chardonnay, Robertson, 2021

Our favourite wine at this estate - and one which has become more and more popular, even to the point of us selling it to some smart restaurants - is the Chardonnay. It's from a large block on well-drained soils with some limestone, perfect for the grape. The grapes are fermented in tanks holding small French oak blocks; and a couple of months on the lees gives it a little fat. Very lightly oaked, gently creamy, with lime and melon flavours, this is a very correct, easy-quaffing, generous Chardonnay. Now-2023

Goedverwacht translates from Afrikaans as good hope – or great expectations, hence the labelling. The du Toit family farm no less than 172 hectares of vines along the bends of the Breede river near Bonnievale. The wines are made by father Jan in collaboration with son Gawie. Jan once firmly told me his place in the world of wine in South Africa - "I farm for money, not with money" – distinguishing himself from all the supermarket owners, luxury goods merchants, bankers, jewellers or golfers who have bought wine estates in the Cape. Here there are indisputable economies of scale and modern practice, for example careful matching of variety to soil type and harvesting in the cool of the night and early morning. All three wines below benefit from a little oak influence.

The birds on the labels are blue cranes. Antropoides Paradisea is the national bird of South Africa, once commonly sighted in the Breede River Valley but now an endangered species.