Cathedral Cellar Sauvignon Blanc

The entire winemaking process - right from the selection of grapes - focused on retaining maximum flavour. Crushing was slow and gentle to cool the mash. The grapes were pressed and cold settled for 24 hours followed by a careful racking to the fermentation tank. Specific yeast was selected for each fermentation batch to ensure maximum flavour development. Fermentation was done at 12 to 13°C to preserve freshness and fruit flavours.

Water is the key feature of this vintage. Its lack to begin with and its abundance at the end with a few key cameo performances in between. Simply put we began this vintage with a very dry winter indeed. Our winter rains are the main source of moisture for our soils in the Western Cape and particularly in the Coastal regions. Our soils are consequently the biggest (most important) reservoir of moisture for our vineyards in these regions. With winter rainfall between 50% and 60% of long-term averages, dropping below the drought years of 2017/2018 in some places. Spring and summer rainfall were not enough to make up for the shortfall until early December when a cloudburst of thundershowers (and some hail) brought great relief. The rains caused increased disease pressure, but was managed well. What was becoming clear in January was a seriously smaller grape crop lead by smaller berries in particular. The smallest crop in 19 years. Cooler early season conditions led to great concentration of aromatics and structure further strengthened but smaller berry size. Early, light and brisk was the harvesting period until late February and early March where unseasonal rainfall slowed things down considerably for the last portion of the vintage.

The wine spent 60 days on fermentation lees, stirred up once a week to enhance the mouth feel before being racked, filtered and stabilized for bottling.