Colour: Pale lemon-yellow with faint green tinges.
Bouquet: Concentrated fruit aromas of ripe guava and pineapple, together with floral notes. Time in wood together with lees contact added nuances of butterscotch and nuts.
Taste: On the palate the emphasis is on the fruit and there is plenty of that. Upfront guava and pineapple with sweet vanilla and honey follow through onto a long finish.
Delightful on its own, chilled at 12° to14° C. Enjoy with strong flavoured food dishes such as curries, masalas, biryani, Mediterranean cuisine and Thai dishes. Also delicious with roast pork, apple sauce and crackling.
variety : Chenin Blanc [ 100% Chenin Blanc ]
winemaker : Estelle Lourens
wine of origin : Simonsberg ward, Stellenbosch
analysis : alc : 13.59 % vol rs : 4.10 g/l pH : 3.18 ta : 6.80 g/l va : 0.31 g/l
type : White wooded
pack : Bottle closure : Cork
in the vineyard : Background
Uitkyk Estate, situated on the south-western slopes of the Simonsberg, was established in 1712. The estate’s neo-classical manor house, completed in 1788, is thought to be the work of the French architect Louis Michel Thibault, who was active at the Cape at the end of the 18th century. The estate is jointly owned by Distell and LUSAN.
Vineyards
Uitkyk Estate is 600 ha in size with 140 ha under vines. An interesting variety of cultivars are planted on the estate: Chardonnay, Sémillon, Chenin blanc, Viognier, Pinot Grigio, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz, Pinotage, Sangiovese, Mourvédre, Petit Verdot and Pinot noir. During the 2012 vintage 930 tons were harvested at the cellar.
The grapes used to craft this wine came from a single vineyard situated 250 m above sea level and facing in a northerly direction. The 34-year-old vines are grafted onto nematode-resistant Richter 99 rootstocks and grown in soils originating from decomposed granite. The dryland vines are trellised on a three-wire hedge system and received no supplementary irrigation during the growing season. These vines almost resemble bush vines as a result of its age. The yield was only 6 tons per hectare, with excellent quality and complexity of fruit as a result.
in the cellar : Skin contact was allowed for 6 to 8 hours and only the free-run juice was used. Twenty percent of the wine fermented naturally while the rest of the juice was inoculated with pure yeast cultures and soon afterwards 46% of the blend was transferred to wood. After the fermentation finished the wine was left on the lees for a period of 9 months in 20% new oak, 26% third-fill French oak barrels, while the balance stayed on the lees in a tank. No malolactic fermentation took place. During the maturation period the lees had been stirred every 2 weeks. Bottling took place in December 2012.