December heralds a pang of remembrance for that
one perfect summer, when everything came together into 4 weeks of pure unadulterated
joy. Saltwater up your nose when a wave dumped you off your boogie board, the
sweet, almost coconutty smell of sunscreen, and the way you always had fish
scales sticking to your legs, no matter how many showers or swims you had.
As a family, our summer holidays consisted
long days at the coast, catching our dinner off the harbour jetty, and cooking
it ourselves over the braai. As we grew
older we were allowed to go to sea – sometimes catching nothing, sometimes
catching enough to share with neighbours and friends. We were taught that the
tastiest fish were often the ugliest – bony, spiny, red things whose eyes
popped out from the pressure change as they rose from the deep, and that time
and tide - and fried fish - waits for no-one.
We made Miss Lucy - one of the nicknames
for the Red Stumpnose, a fish native to the South East Coast and now sadly
endangered - in an attempt to capture the summers of our youth. This wine, a
blend of Sauvignon, Semillon and Pinot Gris, over 12 years in the making, was
made to accompany anything from the sea, and is meant to be enjoyed over those
blissfully languid summer lunches where the sun warms your salty skin, your
hair is tangled by the breeze, your tummy full and your heart overflowing.
Complex in flavour, with hints of citrus
and pamplemousse, this is the ideal wine for any occasion this summer, and we
hope you enjoy it with those who make you happy.
It is only fitting that we release this
wine in time for the summer break. Miss Lucy is our tribute to the ocean and
the many riches it offers. It is our summer in a bottle. As adults, we learn
that you cannot live in the past, and that you need to make your own memories.
Yet perhaps with Miss Lucy, we have a shot at another perfect summer.