Playing with Chardonnay is something Stephanie loves to do, even if it is not a part of the Thistle & Weed selection. When she has had access to great fruit, she has always said yes and historically would bulk the wine off to a buyer. In this vintage of the Lovely Creatures collaboration, Steph sourced the Chardonnay from the Swartland on sandy clay soils with ferricrete (koffieklip) intermixed, which give that rich, purity of fruit that the Swartland is known for. The reason for switching the source of the fruit to the Swartland in 2022 (after sourcing from Stellenbosch in 2021) was that the yields in Stellenbosch were insanely low in 2022.
The Chardonnay was hand-harvested and de-stemmed with a gentle pressing to stainless-steel tanks. The juice fermented at a rather cool temperature, and after ten days the fermentation went dry. The wine remained in tank to mellow out. After ten months of aging, the wine was bottled with a gentle fining, crossflow filtration, and dose of sulfur.