Tasting Notes
Vivid and brilliant citrus-lime colour, gives way to an apples and pear aroma. Once swallowed, the restrained fruit gives way to a zesty, clean, fresh, flinty finish. Dry as a bone, this Unoaked Chardonnay is light and refreshing – the perfect solution to a scorching hot day!!
This wine will pair easily with fish, grilled asparagus with poached egg and most poultry dishes. The restraint of the mid-palate and the freshness of the finish will make short work of heavier foods too. Truly invigorating, this wine can be drunk on its own (or you may share it with a friend!).
Technical Analysis
Alcohol: 12% Residual Sugar: 1.60g/l Total Acidity: 5.5 g/l pH: 3.09 Production: 3,500 bottles (750ml)
Harvested: By hand 14th February 2020 Ageing potential: 5-7 years
Harvest Report
The 2020 wine-making campaign was much more spread out than the previous vintage, due to prolonged cooler weather and pretty decent, regular rain compared to previous few years.
The harvest started slightly later than the previous vintage, with the Syrah ripening before the Sauvignon Blanc this year! Processing the grapes and fermentations were more spread out and therefore, more manageable than the previous vintage.
Following 4 years of drought conditions in The Western Cape, the 2019/20 growing season saw rainfall return to average levels, nicely spread, throughout the season and even into harvest-time. Budding was even and flowering missed much of the earlier rain, though did result in a bit of millerandages and coulure, resulting in looser bunches, less and smaller berries. Summer evening temperatures remained much cooler than during the day, so ripening became more even and gradual, resulting in really well-balanced grapes (sugar ripeness Vs phenolic ripeness of the skins).
Harvesting
The grapes were hand picked on the 14th February, during the early part of the morning, with the first selection of bunches being conducted in the vineyards (any unripe, rotten or bird-damaged bunches were cut and dropped on the floor). Once the small 20kg picking cases reached the cellar, just 1km down the road, they were loaded directly into the cooling room and brought down to about 10⁰C. Once this temperature was achieved, the grapes were sent along a sorting table, to remove anything that may have been missed by the vineyard pickers.
Vinification
After sorting the grapes were de-stemmed, crushed and sent directly into the press where the juice was separated immediately from the skins and sent to a settling tank. The following day, the clear juice was racked from the gross-lees into another stainless-steel tank, where the juice was allowed to warm up slowly and a few days later, a spontaneous fermentation kicked in. Fermentation took about 18 days to be completed with the wine being inoculated with yeast towards the end of the process, just to finish off any residual Fructose.