Family Reserve Sauvignon Blanc

The grapes were picked early in the morning and in some cases even during the night. We handle Sauvignon Blanc very reductively from the start with dry ice in the vineyard through to the fermentation vessel. 90% barrel fermented and aged for a further 9 months before blending, the barrel fermented portion is also made exclusively from grapes that are wholebunch pressed and not the traditional route of crushing and destemming. The remaining 10% is made up of 5% from concrete egg and 5% from stainless steel tank, also aged for 9 months on the gross lees before blending. A small portion of the wine in barrel was also put through malolactic fermentation. No fining takes place before bottling and the only filtration is a rough filtration on the bottling line.

The grapes were selected from vineyards in Durbanville and Darling, all near the cooling breeze of the Atlantic Ocean. The run-up to the season was characterized by a warm and dry winter and spring, resulting in drier than usual soil conditions at the onset of the growing season. This resulted in earlier bud-break and flowering, and as such also promising an earlier than usual harvest. Some leaf plucking in the bunch zone early in December ensured enough sunlight on the fruit and created a healthy microclimate around the bunches.