Ava Marie is a single 2 Ha vineyard planted in 1999. Within the vineyard there are pockets with different soil structure and slightly different microclimates. All these different pockets are harvested at different times within a 2-3 week period. Craig says the vineyard creates it’s own building blocks naturally, which they are embracing each vintage. Each parcel is vinified separately, with specific 500L barrels or terracotta pots chosen for each picking. It sounds like a complicated process, but Craig is focused on having fun in the process and embracing vintage variation year after year.

A good expression of a marvelous vintage. Beautiful lime/lemon freshness, bit of flinty reductive note at this young age. Green melon, touch of nuttiness, oyster shell and crayfish with tight textured mouthfeel and a coated acidity on the finish. I just love this wine and hope enough people buy to put away for at least 5 years. This is a wine that will definitely only reveal all its layers over time. – Corlien’s notes

Tim Atkin MW: “I fell in love with Chardonnay through Chablis,” says Craig Wessels and you can see that influence here. Reflecting the coolness of the 2021 vintage, this is taut, focused, stony and engagingly mouth-watering, with effortless concentration, notes of brine, lanolin and lemon juice and extra layers of complexity from old barrels and amphoras. 2024-31.  96/100