Straw Wine

This wine is a dessert all on its own - a real treat after the meal. Delicious with biscotti and various nuts.

n exceptional vintage. After the hot and dry 2016 season and a dry and warm autumn, we feared insufficient build-up of reserves in the vines and possible uneven bud break, but we had a good normal wet and cold winter and the sudden warm weather in spring helped to provide more even bud break than expected. The growing season was quite dry and mild with moderate to lower vigour and healthy growth, producing a slightly smaller crop than usual with small berries. We had ideal cooler weather during harvest time with cool nights and no substantial heatwaves. We picked some of our Chenin just before a heavy downpour at the end of January, but we didn't use that for our Straw wine and waited to pick the balance over the following 3 weeks. An elegant, promising vintage, similar to 2007.

Fermented with natural yeasts and matured for 2 1⁄2 years using 50% new 225L French oak barrels. Racked while in barrel to remove heavy sediment.

The grapes were picked at optimum ripeness and laid out on drying racks in 70% shade for about 3 weeks. This allows the grapes to concentrate sugars, acids and flavours, before re-harvesting in the cool mornings.

A small family winery at the end of the Upper Blaauwklippen Road in the mountains above Stellenbosch South Africa. Established in 1992 by architect David Trafford & artist wife Rita with the focus on high end red wines of great intensity & longevity using minimal intervention production methods.