Joubert Tradauw Chardonnay 2008

Joubert Tradauw Chardonnay 2008

Tasting Notes

The Joubert family has a history of over six decades of farming in the Tradauw Valley of the Klein Karoo, but its ascent into the production of fine wine is a fairly new venture. Over sixty years ago Schalk-Willem Joubert left Wellington for the fertile Tradauw Valley to farm fruit and grow table grapes. Located around 200 miles on Route 62 from Cape Town, this is a semi-arid region, with its limited rainfall coming in the winter months, but more importantly it has a large variation between day and night time temperatures during the growing season, making it a perfect area for growing grapes. It wasn’t until 1982 when Schalk-Willem’s son, Jacobus Joubert, realized the potential for growing premium wine cultivars and the first premium wine grapes were planted - Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, respectively. In the late 1990’s the dream of making their own came to fruition when in 1999 the first grapes were crushed and made into wine.
Coming in at around 13% alcohol by volume, the 2008 Joubert-Tradauw Chardonnay plays more towards restraint and understatement rather than power. Yet in spite of its lower alcohol the fruit shows good ripeness and flavor intensity, particularly in the palate, which can be attributed to the wine being barrel fermented in 40% new French oak. The nose starts off somewhat shy, then opens to notes of subtle toast, some underlying nutty nuances, lees, yeast, with fruit aromas along the lines of melon and ripe pear. The palate shows good balance with a vein of acidity countering the slightly creamy texture (from the barrel fermentation), with mineral etched flavors of melon and riper, creamy white orchard fruits. The overall impression is a wine with freshness, good drive and a slightly viscous texture that offers good varietal definition and fruit intensity. Showing well now this should drink nicely over the next 3 years plus, where with time more interesting secondary characters should develop.

6 Bottle price

Price

SKU

Varietal

$11.99

$14.99

8549

Chardonnay