Dornier Donatus White 2013

The wine has aromas of white peach, pear and perfumy fruit. The palate is rich, but still elegant, with flavours of citrus, white grapefruit and honey. The wine has terrific mouthfeel and a fine minerality on the finish.

Being a full flavoured wooded wine, creamy seafood dishes with richness and weight such as sole, butterfish, abalone and lobster will complement this wine.

variety : Chenin Blanc [ 75% Chenin Blanc, 25% Semillon ]
winery : Dornier Wines
winemaker : JC Steyn
wine of origin : Western Cape
analysis : alc : 13.5 % vol  rs : 3.1 g/l  pH : 3.48  ta : 5.2 g/l  va : 0.33 g/l  
type : White  style : Dry  body : Medium   wooded
pack : Bottle  size : 0  closure : Cork  

ageing : From 2012 onwards up to 5 years.

The focus behind this blend is to bring together the opulence and complexity of Chenin Blanc with the freshness and rich mouth feel of the Semillon. In addition to the fruit traditionally used from vineyards in Stellenbosch, we decided to source fruit from an old, dry land vineyard within the Swartland region.

in the vineyard : We source Chenin blanc from 3 old bushvine vineyards located in the Swartland where the soil consists of decomposed granite with a lot of sand. These vines yield intensely rich, perfumy fruit. The rest of the Chenin is sourced from a Stellenbosch bushvine vineyard, with a “koffee-klip” soil, offering minerality and finesse to the blend. We blend these Chenin components with Semillon from our Dornier property, where the soil is quite cool, offering freshness to the blend. 2013 was a tricky year, with bouts of rain falling weekly during the months of February and March. Picking decisions were tough, and it was a year where winemaking had to be precise and the handling of the fruit and wine needed to be gentle. Fortunately the wind in November reduced the crop somewhat, which resulted in excellent concentration in our fruit.

in the cellar : We receive the fruit within the early hours of the morning while they are still cool from the previous night. The bunches are sorted by hand and pressed whole lunch, allowing for a low extraction of juice. The parcels of fruit are fermented separately in 300L French Oak barrels, of which 25% is new. The wine spends 10 months aging on the lees in barrel, which gives great mouthfeel and richness to the wine.

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OTHER VINTAGES

Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Chenin Blanc