Rall Wines

Chenin Blanc, Ava, 2023

Name: Chenin Blanc, Ava
Brand: Rall Wines
Price: 254.74 GBP

95/100

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

93/100

Vinous

Available Vintages

all 2022 2023

delivery

in bond

portfolio

2023
75cl
DP
£42.46
2023
6x75cl
DP
£254.74

Justerini & Brooks Tasting note

Compared to the Noa, Ava is the more generous and expressive wine in youth. Viscous and accessible from the off, the schist soils offer up deeper fruit notes of lemon and ginger with salt crystals and mirabelle. Barrel fermented and aged, this is a delicious Chenin Blanc. Roughly 70/30 Schist-Granite soils, fermented and aged entirely in used oak barrels, total production rarely exceeds 1,300bts.

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GUARANTEED PROVENANCE

Provenance in fine wine

When it comes to purchasing wine, provenance is of utmost importance. A wine’s history – where it’s sourced from and how it’s been stored – can have an enormous influence on the eventual enjoyment it provides. At Justerini & Brooks, we can trace nearly every case back to the domaine, estate or Château it originally came from; we ship from over 200 wine producers throughout the world.

Wines not bought directly from the vineyard are either sourced from trusted suppliers, with whom we share the same philosophy and rigour in buying, or from our own network of Cellarers customers. These customers’ wines are stored in optimal conditions in Octavian Corsham and, in the vast majority of cases, have been stored by us since the wine was first shipped. We do not purchase wine from auctions.

We feel it is equally important to for our customers that the case they buy and leave in storage with us is exactly the same case they subsequently have delivered. This may sound obvious and straightforward, yet we are one of very few merchants to have taken measures to ensure this.

We have created a system where every case is independent, thereby ensuring a trail of ownership and peace of mind for every customer.

The Journey

Justerinis ensures that every case of wine stored with Cellarers (Wines) Ltd has a unique identifier and customer’s name, almost unheard of in the industry as it is expensive to administer. These details are printed and placed on every case which is logged and recorded under your account name and kept in the world’s most renowned storage facility, Octavian Corsham.

This information is sent from our systems to the warehouse every day to ensure the trail of ownership is verified and upheld.

While customer reserves are stored in Corsham, our physical stocks are kept in Hoddesdon, further providing a geographical separation between customers’ wines with Cellarers and Justerinis’ own stock.

Further Reassurance

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is a legally separate limited company from Justerini & Brooks which currently holds approximately £450 million worth of customer reserves. It is fully insured to catastrophic loss. Many merchants will state that wine in their care is fully insured, but in reality this is on an individual case basis with insufficient cover for total loss as this is prohibitively expensive. The cover provided by Octavian and Justerini & Brooks is unmatched.

Cellarers (Wines) Ltd is audited by PwC every year.

Critic Reviews

95/100

Monica Larner,

Robert Parker Wine Advocate

This wine explores the spirit of schist soils with vines planted in 1986. The Rall 2023 Swartland Chenin Blanc Ava reveals aromas of aniseed, licorice and fennel root at the back of orchard fruit and unripe peach. With the Noa, vintner Donovan Rall limits oxygen, but with this wine, he seeks more of it. He works with three vineyards with schist soil, and this is the only one he can bottle on its own because it achieves the balance he seeks. The wine ferments in 400-liter barrel for six months until almost dry. There is a touch of residual sugar at 2.5 grams per liter. The wine is creamy and fleshed out in terms of texture, but its aging potential remains intact. The personality of this wine is certainly more soothing and richer overall. Donovan Rall seeks to express two sides of Chenin Blanc, one on granite (the Noa) and one on schist (the Ava).

drinking window 2025 - 2035

date of review 06/2025

93/100

Neal Martin,

Vinous

The 2023 Chenin AVA comes from two parcels on schistous soils, matured in used 300-liter barrels. It has an attractive nose of melted candle wax mixed with orange blossom and lime, developing more crushed stone aromas with aeration. The palate is very well balanced with a fine thread of acidity. Linear and strict in style, the waxy texture here is wonderful, and there's a lovely prickle of lemongrass right on the finish. This is a classy expression of Chenin, courtesy of a great winemaker.

drinking window 2025 - 2038

date of review 09/2024

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abv:

13.5%

allergen information

This product may contain sulphites. Full allergen information is available upon request, please call our Customer Relations Team on +44 (0)20 7484 6430.