Wednesday, 20 April, 2016
Ken Forrester Wines
There's so much more to looking ahead, my thoughts went to finding a proper old vineyard of veritable age, on a beautiful remote mountainside in the classic old "bush vine" or French "gobelet" style mimicking a brandy snifter in shape. A very old vineyard in the Piekenierskloof region, planted with no irrigation in 1965.
This delightful old vineyard was proffered and I unhesitatingly accepted, knowing that the challenge was extreme - somehow I had to make a wine that could show the age, experience of the vines and showcase the terroir and more specifically the vintage.
A huge challenge indeed and added to that I wanted to present it as a unique once off! Not just an extension of what I already do, a single vintage by vintage challenge to show the year and the place and the most natural winemaking way possible.
Make it naturally, completely spontaneous ferment after extended soaking on skins and stalks before pressing, in barrels, straight on to malolactic fermentation and then only racked and a tiny addition of SO2. Back into beautiful old, natural 400L French barrels (6 - 10 years old) for a 5 month rest and natural clarification, then bottled unfiltered and unfined to comply with the "natural" rules and laws.
The result is a tight, bright, minerally wine with texture and mouthfeel and an interesting hint of phenolic structure - like soft acidity and pear drop intensity. Built to age and gain complexity in bottle.
We took a trip backwards in time to make a thoroughly modern wine. A wine that will age beautifully for at least the next ten years, a tribute hopefully to the age and concentration of the vines, as well as to low, very low interruptive winemaking, a natural wine in every sense and finally bottled totally naturally with no cold stabilization or fining and it is crystal clear, slightly golden in a good way, with a still lime green rim and how did I do that you ask?
Well it's unfiltered, unfined just a Dirty Little Secret - naturally!
Dirty Little Secret One became officially available as of Wednesday, 20 April 2016. Allocations will be done on a first-come, first-served basis to our allocation list members only. In order to be join our list and receive an offer to procure, kindly complete the information below:
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