Kershaw Clonal Selection Chardonnay
£53.00
£70.67 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
In Stock — 6 bottles available
94Tim Atkin MW
International Wine Challenge, GoldBerlin Wine Trophy, Gold
Cool-climate Chardonnay from Elgin, South Africa's highest, most maritime wine district, and the playground of Richard Kershaw MW, one of only a handful of Masters of Wine making wine in the country. Precise, mineral, quietly profound. If you love white Burgundy but want to taste somewhere new, start here.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
Our Verdict
We taste a lot of South African Chardonnay, and very little of it makes us stop mid-sip. This one does. Richard Kershaw is doing something genuinely different in Elgin, clonal-by-clonal, parcel-by-parcel, with the kind of fastidiousness that usually only Burgundy bothers with, and the wine has the structure and length to back it up. Tim Atkin MW has scored recent releases at 94 points, and we'd argue that's modest. This is for the serious white-wine drinker who has worked through a lot of Meursault and is ready to be properly surprised. Only six bottles left in the rack.
Tasting Notes
The nose opens with lemon zest, white blossom and a distinctive chalky, wet-pebble minerality that immediately tells you this is cool-climate Elgin fruit. The palate is taut and precise, incisive acidity carrying flavours of lemon cream, white nectarine and a whisper of jasmine, all framed by the gentle nuttiness of extended lees ageing. There's depth here, but no weight; the finish is long, saline and quietly insistent, with cooked oats and creamy lemon biscuit lingering.
Chalk & Wet Pebble
A striking mineral core, think rain on slate and powdered rock, that gives the wine its cool, focused, almost Alpine character.
Lemon Cream
Bright lemon zest on the nose deepens into lemon curd and creamy citrus on the palate, balanced by genuinely incisive acidity.
White Nectarine & Jasmine
A lifted mid-palate of delicate stone fruit and white florals adds a perfumed, summery dimension to the wine's mineral spine.
About This Wine
Elgin sits high in the mountains east of Cape Town, where cold ocean air rolls in off the Atlantic and night-time temperatures drop sharply, even in February. It's South Africa's coolest serious wine district, and it's where Richard Kershaw, one of a small handful of Masters of Wine making wine in the country, has built his reputation on a single obsession: matching specific Chardonnay clones to specific patches of Elgin soil, and letting the place speak.
The result is a wine that drinks more like top-end Côte de Beaune than anything you'd expect from the Southern Hemisphere. Lemon zest, white nectarine and a whisper of gardenia on the nose, then a palate that's all chalk, wet pebble and lifted citrus, threaded with the kind of crackling acidity that keeps everything taut. The oak, French, from Burgundian coopers, judiciously deployed, adds a creamy lemon-biscuit warmth on the finish without ever stealing the show.
Grapes are hand-picked at dawn, whole-bunch pressed and gravity-fed to barrel, where wild yeasts do the work over months of lees ageing. It's slow, patient winemaking, and you can taste it.
Pour it with roast chicken and tarragon, a whole baked turbot, or a wedge of aged Comté. It will reward another five or six years in the cellar if you can wait. Delivered carefully across the UK, and a serious gift for anyone who loves real, place-driven white wine.
Food Pairing
This is a Chardonnay built for the table. The acidity cuts through richness, the minerality flatters anything from the sea, and the gentle oak-and-lees creaminess loves a touch of butter. Try it with roast chicken and tarragon, a whole baked seabass, or a plate of Cornish crab on toast. Hard cheeses with a nutty edge, aged Comté, mature Gruyère, also sing alongside it.
- —Whole roasted seabass with lemon and fennel
- —Cornish crab on sourdough toast
- —Roast chicken with tarragon butter
- —Seared scallops with brown butter
- —Aged Comté or mature Gruyère
How to Serve
Temperature
Cool but not ice-cold, around 10–12°C. Twenty minutes out of the fridge before serving lets the aromatics open.
Decanting
No need to decant, but don't be afraid to. A short half-hour in a carafe coaxes out the florals and softens the linear acidity, especially with younger bottles still showing tightly wound fruit.
Glass
A Burgundy-style glass with a broad bowl gives the chalky, floral nose proper room to unfurl.
Cellaring
Store on its side at a steady 10–14°C, away from light and vibration. Built to age gracefully for up to a decade from vintage.
Behind the Wine
Elgin is South Africa's coolest serious wine district, and that defines everything about this Chardonnay. Higher altitude, ocean-cooled air, a long ripening curve and big swings between day and night temperatures let the fruit hang slowly and hold onto its acidity. Kershaw farms eight small Chardonnay parcels with a clonal-selection approach, matching specific clones to specific soils, so the fruit arrives in the cellar already carrying the cool, taut, mineral character that Elgin gives.
Ageing Potential
Drinks beautifully on release but rewards patience. Expect this to gain complexity over five to seven years in a cool cellar, with the citrus mellowing into honeyed, nutty territory while the mineral spine holds firm. Total drinking window is comfortably a decade from vintage.
The Winemaking
Hand-picked in the cool of early morning, then gently whole-bunch pressed at low pressure for a low juice recovery, a deliberately gentle, low-yield extraction. The unclarified juice flows by gravity straight into French oak barrels from a handful of artisanal Burgundian coopers, where it ferments spontaneously on its native yeasts, with malolactic discouraged to preserve the bright acidity. Four months on lees in barrel before a light sulphuring, then seven more in oak before racking, blending and bottling. Each clone and soil parcel is vinified separately.
About the Producer
Kershaw
Richard Kershaw is one of only a handful of Masters of Wine actually making wine in South Africa, and he founded Kershaw Wines with a clear idea: take the noble grapes that can produce truly world-class wine, Chardonnay, Syrah, Pinot Noir, and grow them where they belong, then split everything down to the clone and the soil type. No blending shortcuts, no broad-brush approach. Each tiny parcel is vinified on its own and only married together at the end if it earns its place. It's a forensic, almost scientific way of working, but the wines that come out the other side are anything but clinical. They taste of somewhere specific, made by someone who knows exactly what they're doing.