2014 Paul Cluver Estate Chardonnay Elgin 750 ml

93pts Wine Advocate: “A showstopper of a Chardonnay that gives a lot of Burgundy a run for its money"

We’re too old for this. Over the last 30 years, we’ve visited nearly every important wine route in the world multiple times. Still, the seemingly endless journey to South Africa had always scared us off.

But after being introduced to Paul Cluver’s scintillating whites at “Best Sommelier in the World” Aldo Sohm’s Wine Bar on 52nd Street, we boarded the 10:40 a.m. flight out of JFK en route to Johannesburg. Twenty hours later, we landed for a second time, this time in Cape Town, in bad need of a chiropractor and a whirlpool.

The following afternoon, we got our first look at the Elgin Valley. In just a few minutes, we forgot all about our twisted pelvises and the acute lower back pain.

As was explained to us at Aldo’s, the Elgin Valley sits just 70 kilometers southeast of Cape Town, in the shadow of the Hottentots Holland Mountains. Encircled by mountains, lush and green, the region was deemed best suited for growing Granny Smith apples — before the Cluvers planted Chardonnay and Pinot Noir on the family’s magnificent undulating hillsides.

The Cluver estate falls within the Kogelberg Biosphere Reserve. Our walk through the nature reserve, a fynbos floral kingdom with its 1,600 distinct plant species, was one of the more memorable of our three decades on the wine trail. The meticulously farmed vineyards are perched at almost 1,500 feet in elevation. Much like the Santa Barbara coastline, the Elgin Mountain plateau takes full advantage of this mountainous maritime setting, stretching out the growing season for cold-climate Chardonnay.

Paul Cluver is widely recognized as one of the most inventive winegrowers in the world. Our three-hour tasting of the entire lineup in 2013 and 2014 only served to reinforce the estate’s international reputation. The Rieslings were tightly wound and Mosel-like. The Pinot Noirs were high-toned and complex, a logical mix of Central Otago and the Côte de Nuits. But it was this astounding 2014 Chardonnay that stole the afternoon thunder, impressing us much as it had Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate.

Brilliant green-gold in hue. Piercing aromas of orchards fruits, apricot, and beeswax, tinged with roasted walnuts. Fresh, vibrant, and wonderfully pure on the attack, with a mouthwatering core of bitter honey and citronelle, finishing with bracing acidity and persistence. The Wine Advocate suggests drinking this magnificent white Burgundy lookalike over the course of the next DECADE. We have no reason to disagree.

93 points from The Wine Advocate. $28 on release. Just $19.99 this morning — our most intriguing discovery of our endless trip to Cape Town.