variety : Chenin Blanc [ 100% Chenin Blanc ]
winemaker : Werner Engelbrecht
wine of origin : Western Cape
analysis : alc : 14 % vol rs : 3.89 g/l pH : 3.36 ta : 5.46 g/l
type : White style : Dry body : Medium wooded
pack : Bottle closure : Screwcap
in the vineyard : Chenin blanc is regarded as the workhorse of the South African Wine Industry. It produces the bulk of our generic white wines. There is however some gems inbetween the mass of Chenin blanc vineyards. Our goal is to identify these gems and allow it to express themselves in the False Bay Chenin blanc.
It is not the sort of vineyards that will win prizes for appearances. You will be shocked if you expect neat monocultural rows of regimented wines, standing in gleaming bare earth. What makes these vineyards so exciting for us is the fact that fine and distinctive adventures in terroir are to be found, rather than ultra-ripe, super extracted fruit. The decomposed granite characteristics of the Perdeberg mountain seem to deliver a wine of structural finesse and minerality, more terroir driven than the Swartland in general. The vines are left to struggle for what water they can find - generally, thanks to an element of retentive clay, there is enough, yet in drier years our response might have to be to drop of some crop (not that there was much to start with).
2009 GROWING SEASON
The Winelands stayed in the grip of winter well into September of 2008. Very good rains during the winter ensured that soil retained enough moisture to sustain the vines through the long growing season. Together with cool weather during Spring, it caused vineyards to ripen the grapes later than normal. Cultivars that ripen early to mid season was 2 to 3 weeks later than normal years. The long, cool growing season ensured that grapes had a high natural acidity and lots of flavour. Late ripening varietals like Cabernet Sauvignon ripened on time. The result was a short and very intense harvest which lasted for about 5 weeks
in the cellar : Picking early in the morning, we de-stemmed the grapes before separating the juice from the skins. The free run juice was separated from the skins immediately and allowed to settle at 12 degrees Celcius for 24 hours. No enzymes were used to aid the settling & the press juice was discarded. No cultured yeasts were used and fermentation took 12 weeks. The wine was left on the secondary lees for another 1 month before bottling.