Young Guns and New Wave Producers
Timed Online Auction, 17 - 27 November 2023
Young Gun and New Wave Producers
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About this Item
Restless River is a rising star which has quietly achieved cult-status for its brilliant, Burgundian-style Chardonnay and lean Cabernet Sauvignon. The Restless River label was launched in 2012 and is managed and owned by Craig and Anne Wessels, winemaker and manager respectively. Their farm is located in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and has some of the oldest Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay vines in the region (planted in 1998). Almost all their production is done by hand, resulting in limited quantities of each wine.
Matthew Dukes once wrote: "If you have ever wondered whether the Cape would ever make Grand Cru chardonnay, the answer is in this bottle”. What more can be said. Restless River Ava Marie Chardonnay is one of the Cape’s finest offerings. With beautiful tension, freshness and texture, and never forward in fruit or oak, Ava Marie is an exercise in elegance and restraint. Green apple, white pear, hints of lime, a touch saline and sometimes slightly flinty on the nose when young. With a backbone of fresh acidity, this chardonnay ages and matures magnificently. Only a few thousand bottles are produced each vintage, making it pretty rare and worthy of a special place in your cellar.
Provenance
Wine Cellar Private Client
Critics Ratings
‘Selective pickings of Chardonnay single-vineyard, natural ferment/maturation in oak, 5% amphora sur lie, stainless steel, deliver usual riveting tension, ripe lime, spice complexity in 2018. Increased texture, fine-grained density yield to breathtaking flinty, limy persistence.’ - Platter’s SA Wine Guide 2021, 5* (97/100)
‘"It's not the winemaker," says Craig Wessels, "I've just got great sites." His vineyards are certainly first class, but I think the man is being too modest here. Consistently one of the New World's best Chardonnays, this is complex, balanced and judiciously wooded with 10% amphorae-fermented juice adding some va-va-voom. 2019-27.’ – Tim Atkin MW, SA Special Report 2019, 96/100
'Much riper nose than the 2017 and altogether a much better balanced wine whose high acidity is nicely balanced by almost balletic slimline fruit. Not an ounce of fat on this wine but you could drink it already – and it should age well.' - Jancis Robinson MW, JancisRobinson.com, 16+/20 (Nov 2020)
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