Happy New Year friends! I hope you all had a fun and festive holiday season, I certainly enjoyed my fair share of cheese, Christmas cookies, and damn good wine! Like many of you, I’m now on a mini cleanse to get back in line after all that celebrating! So for the first Wine Wednesday of 2019, here’s a Mulderbosch Chardonnay I enjoyed while home in Napa over the break.

One of our holiday vacation projects was cleaning out the wine cellar and we found some gems. Jared scored this 2009 Chardonnay from Mulderbosch Vineyards in the bargain bin at Benchmark Wine, he has a knack for picking out the bargain winners! At almost 10 years old, the wine was still kicking! Perfectly balanced acidity followed a rich mouthful of ripe tropical fruit, candied orange peel and a honeyed finish. It seems as though the 2009 did not go through malolactic fermentation, but aging on wood and the extended bottle age did wonders for rounding out this wine with a rich and creamy consistency.

I made a Meyer Lemon tart that turned out to be the perfect compliment as the wine has both aromas and flavors of citrus.

Founded in 1989, Mulderbosch is one of the foremost wine producers in South Africa. They are well known for producing “South Africa’s most celebrated Sauvignon”, which I’ll have to try, but the Chardonnay really impressed me. I’ll be looking for newer vintages asap!

Wine: 2009 Mulderbosch Chardonnay
Purchased: Benchmark
Price: $2 in the bargain bin! Newer vintages retail for approx. $15