KWV Classic Chardonnay
£10.59
£14.12 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
In Stock — 8 bottles available
An easy-going, sun-soaked Cape Chardonnay that punches well above its price tag. Ripe citrus and orchard fruit meet a gentle whisper of oak, finishing crisp and clean. From one of South Africa's most historic wineries, this is a brilliant everyday white for UK tables, pour it with a roast chicken on Sunday or chilled in the garden on a warm evening.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
UK wide delivery
Expert curated
Our Verdict
We keep coming back to this one for a simple reason: it over-delivers. At this price, most Chardonnays are either thin and forgettable or drowning in cheap oak, this finds the middle ground with real assurance. It's the bottle we'd recommend to anyone curious about Cape whites without wanting to spend a fortune, or to anyone stocking up for a dinner party where the wine needs to please everyone. KWV have been making wine in Paarl since 1918, and that experience shows in how easily this drinks. A genuine UK weeknight workhorse.
Tasting Notes
Pale gold in the glass, with a nose that leans into ripe citrus and pear before tropical fruit and a whisper of vanilla drift in behind. The palate is where it earns its keep, creamy and rounded, with peach and melon filling the mid-palate and a soft butterscotch note from gentle oak handling. What stops it tipping into heaviness is a clean, citrus-bright finish that resets the palate and keeps you reaching for the next sip.
Ripe Citrus Lift
Lemon zest and grapefruit pith give the wine its backbone, keeping the riper fruit characters fresh rather than sweet.
Orchard and Stone Fruit
Pear, peach and a touch of melon sit at the heart of the palate, juicy, generous, and unmistakably sun-ripened.
Butterscotch Cream
A creamy, butterscotch-tinged texture from gentle oak handling adds richness without weighing the wine down.
About This Wine
If you want a friendly, food-loving Chardonnay that doesn't demand a special occasion to justify opening, you've found it. KWV's Classic Chardonnay is the Cape in an approachable, everyday mood, generous fruit, a touch of cream, and just enough oak to add interest without ever shouting.
In the glass, expect a pale gold colour and a nose that opens with ripe lemon and pear, drifting into peach and a flash of tropical fruit. Underneath sits a gentle waft of vanilla, a subtle nod to its time on oak, and a hint of butterscotch warmth. The palate is rounder than you might expect at this price: soft, creamy textures wrapped around bright stone-fruit flavours, with a clean, refreshing finish that keeps you coming back for another sip.
This is the kind of bottle KWV does brilliantly. Drawing fruit from 72 growers across the Western Cape, their team has the pick of the country's cool maritime sites and warmer inland vineyards, and that breadth shows in the balance here, between freshness and richness.
Pair it with roast chicken and lemon, a creamy mushroom pasta, or grilled salmon. It's also a reliable choice for a weeknight pour, a casual dinner with friends, or a thoughtful house-warming gift that won't break the bank. Delivered to your door anywhere in the UK, usually within a few working days.
Food Pairing
This is a Chardonnay built for the dinner table rather than the aperitif hour. The creamy texture loves anything in a buttery sauce, think roast chicken with a pan gravy, or a simple linguine with garlic and prawns. The citrus lift cuts beautifully through grilled salmon, and there's enough body to handle a wedge of mild Brie or a smoked-haddock fishcake.
- —Roast chicken with lemon and tarragon
- —Linguine with garlic prawns and butter
- —Grilled salmon fillet with new potatoes
- —Smoked haddock fishcakes with hollandaise
- —Baked Brie with honey and walnuts
How to Serve
Temperature
Properly chilled but not icy, around 10°C lets the oak and stone fruit show through the citrus.
Decanting
No need to decant. A quick swirl in the glass is plenty. If you've pulled it straight from the fridge, give it five minutes to warm slightly before the vanilla and butterscotch notes come forward.
Glass
A medium-bowled white wine glass, wide enough to release the tropical aromatics without losing the citrus edge.
Ageing & Cellaring
Made for early drinking. The fruit is at its most expressive now and over the next year or two, there's no reward in cellaring this one. Buy it, chill it, and enjoy the freshness while it's singing.
The Winemaking
Gentle oak handling is the signature here, enough to lend a whisper of vanilla and a creamy texture, but never so much that the fruit gets buried. The result is a Chardonnay that walks the line between fresh and rich: citrus and orchard fruit kept lively on one side, a soft, rounded mid-palate on the other. It's the kind of restrained, modern winemaking that suits everyday drinking, characterful without being heavy-handed.
The Western Cape Region
Le Domaine draws its fruit from vineyards scattered across the Western Cape, from coastal sites cooled by Atlantic breezes to warmer inland slopes, all planted between 50 and 300 metres above sea level. This broad sourcing is deliberate. By blending components from different microclimates, the cellar builds a consistent house style that balances the crisp acidity of cooler sites with the ripe generosity of warmer ones. It's the Western Cape's extraordinary diversity captured in a single glass.
About the Producer
KWV
KWV isn't just a producer, it's practically an institution. Head to Paarl in the Cape Winelands and you'll find one of the largest wine cellar complexes on earth, sprawling across more than 22 hectares. That scale tells you something about the role this co-operative has played in shaping South African wine as we know it.
Founded in 1918 to bring order and quality to a fragmented industry of independent farmers, KWV spent much of the twentieth century as the organising force behind South African wine. Quotas, pricing, export rules; for decades, if you were a Cape wine farmer, KWV touched your business in some way. It's a history unlike almost any other wine producer in the world, and it explains why the name still carries real weight in Paarl and beyond.
Today KWV has evolved into a producer in its own right, making wines, brandies and spirits from that historic Paarl base, drawing on fruit sourced across the Western Cape. What we love about KWV is the reliability. The Classic range covers the varietals UK drinkers already know and enjoy, Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Merlot, Pinotage, Shiraz, made accessible and consistent without cutting corners. These are honest, well-made wines for everyday drinking, the kind you can pour on a Tuesday without a second thought.
Then there's Roodeberg, KWV's most storied wine. First released in 1949, it became something of a Cape institution itself, a red blend so sought after in South Africa that it was once rationed among loyal customers. That's the sort of detail that tells you a wine has earned its reputation the old-fashioned way, through generations of drinkers rather than marketing.
We stock KWV because it offers UK customers two things at once: a genuine piece of South African wine history, and wines that are simply good value, easy to enjoy, and true to their place. Whether you're new to South African wine or you grew up with a bottle of Roodeberg on the family table, there's something here worth exploring. Every bottle carries Wine of Origin Western Cape certification, a straightforward guarantee of where it's really from.