Sauvignon Blanc

Paul Clüver Sauvignon blanc has always been recognized for its elegance, balance between vibrant freshness and tropical complexity – all an expression of our terroir, and the 2023 is evidence to this. Our role in the cellar is to highlight the typicity of our Estate but also the vintage. Pressing of the grapes is gentle and throughout the winemaking process careful attention is paid to handling our fruit to ensure we produce only the best quality Sauvignon blanc. To add further complexity and a richer mid-palate we blended 5% Sémillon to the Sauvignon blanc. 100% of the Sémillon was fermented and aged in 2500 l Foudre’s.

After a cold winter with good, replenishing rainfall our vineyards experienced superb growing conditions in the lead up to the 2023 harvest. The moderate day temperatures and cool nights of spring and early summer were ideal for the development of diverse flavours in the grapes as well as retaining high natural acidities. The Sauvignon blanc harvest started on the 7th of March and finished on the 22nd of March. Picking was in the cool early hours of the morning with the harvested grapes placed in cold storage overnight to add an extra dimension of varietal expression. Grapes were harvested between 21-23.6 ° Brix. The first plantings of Sauvignon blanc on our Estate commenced in 1990 and the youngest vineyards planted in 2020. A total of 23.5 hectares are planted to Sauvignon blanc, ranging from vineyards of between 3 and 30 years old. We have a diversity of clones planted (316, 317, 242, 159, 11, 905, 376, 108 and 215) to provide us with a range of diverse flavours and complexity in our Sauvignon blanc. The soil is predominantly weathered Bokkeveld shale with underlying clay. Slopes are of various aspects but mostly South and Southeast facing. Vineyard elevation ranges from 280m to 480m above sea level.