Semillon was once widely planted in Franschhoek and indeed the Cape in the middle of the last century. On Steenberg Estate in the Constantia Valley there are two blocks of Semillon plantings of which are between 7 and 22 years of age.
In the year leading up to the harvest was a long and cool one, ideal for packing lots of flavour into the grapes used for the Steenberg Semillon 2014. Once in the cellar the grapes were destemmed and crushed immediately with no skin contact. The juice was cold settled overnight and the clean juice racked off and fermented in 500 and 600 litre French oak barrels made up of one third each new, second and third fill barrels. Once fermented dry, the wine spent a further 9 months in the barrels before being racked off and prepared for bottling.
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