Decanter panel raves about ‘stellar’ SA Chardonnay.
– Cape Town, South Africa, May 2025
“THEY STOOD toe-to-toe with Hawke’s Bay and Margaret River [of Australia] and all but the finest Burgundy [of France]”. High praise indeed from the panel that assessed 128 South African wines for their Chardonnay report in the May ’25 issue of the UK’s Decanter Magazine. The wines were submitted by SA producers or their agents. The judges: wine writer and consultant Jason Millar, who has a background in the UK wine trade; Master of Wine and Decanter contributor Andy Howard, regional chair at the Decanter World Wine Awards; and wine consultant/writer Roger Jones, also a DWWA judge, with a particular interest in the hospitality trade.
The most highly rated wines in the ‘blind tasting’ were from Elgin, Greyton, Hemel-en-Aarde and “the brisker parts of Stellenbosch”, with the top score awarded for a 2020 Elgin beauty from Richard Kershaw MW. More than 50% of the wines tasted were scored 90-plus on Decanter’s 100-point scale – 98 denoting great, exceptional and profound, 95+ for excellent wine of great complexity and character – with the majority of the top wines on shelf at around or above £50/R1200 in the UK (considerably lower in South Africa before shipping fees, duties and taxes).
98 POINTS
Kershaw Clonal Selection Chardonnay 2020
Also rated 97/100 at 2024 International Wine & Spirit Competition
R725pb ex-cellar, Elgin
97 POINTS
Lismore Estate Reserve Chardonnay 2022
R650pb ex-cellar, Greyton
Whalehaven Seascape Reserve Chardonnay 2023
Also rated 96/100 at 2024 International Wine Challenge
R540pb ex-cellar, Hemel-en-Aarde Village