Straw Wine

The Grapes were hand-harvested at a normal ripeness level of 23° Brix and then left to dry in the shade outdoors for 2-4 weeks. This allows moisture to evaporate naturally from the berries, concentrating sugars, acids and flavour. When the grapes were shrivelled half-way to becoming raisins they were crushed and pressed whole-bunch and racked to old 225L barrels. Natural yeast fermentation took 11 months for this vintage and we let it stop naturally when the yeast couldn’t ferment any further. This long, slow fermentation created layer upon layer of complex flavours. After the barrels were racked and blended, the wine was bottled unfiltered and unfined.

Hailing from two of our best old vine vineyards with the freshest acidity, this Chenin Blanc is grown on a 39-year-old Schist soil vineyard on Kasteelberg and a 43-year-old Granite soil vineyard on the Paardeberg, both of which are dry land farmed.

This wine was aged for 12 months in old (minimum 5th fill) 225L French oak barrels.