Smugglers Boot Sauvignon Blanc

Seafood is always a winner – Fresh crab with cracked pepper & a squeeze of lemon juice on crusty wholewheat bread, Smoked salmon on rye bread, Prawn kebabs marinated in lemon, garlic and parsley and grilled on the BBQ or shake it up with lemon, dried juniper berries & fresh rosemary. Pasta with pesto sauce and shavings of Parmesan Cheese (not blue cheese) Soufflé, and Caprese salad. Vegan options include Risotto with peas & mint, Artichokes roasted with lemon & mint, Gazpacho, and Avocado & black sesame seed sushi.

Winter had ideal conditions in that there was water availability throughout, and the temperatures were lower than average. Spring was favourably drier than average enabling a very even budding and shoot growth. However, it was also cool meaning that the growth cycle started 10 to 14 days later. As cooler weather continued the belated pace continued throughout with the vines' growth never catching up. Summer was cooler and wetter leading to more challenges of fungal pressure especially given the canopies were denser. Harvest time in 2022 was eventually delayed on average by 10 to 14 days.

All together the wine stayed on its lees for around 4 months after which the batches were tasted and blended with a light fining and bottled.

Grapes were hand-picked into small lug baskets. The Sauvignon Blanc was whole bunch pressed using a light sparkling wine pressing cycle before going to tank for 2 days of cold settling. After racking off the clean juice a small amount of light fluffy lees was added back, and the wine was inoculated using a mix of yeasts. The Sauvignon Blanc was fermented cool, between 12-14oC enabling a long, cool ferment to preserve all the delicate volatiles that exist in the must. A light sulphuring followed to stop malolactic, and the lees was stirred using heavy dry ice blocks on the Sauvignon Blanc tanks.

“Our commitment is to make the best wines possible from the vine clones best suited to our unique terroir. Our grapes are grown in the cool climate vineyards of Elgin in the Western Cape of South Africa. We produce only a very limited number of cases of Kershaw Elgin Chardonnay and Kershaw Elgin Syrah each vintage. Our aim always is to produce some of the best wines of their style in South Africa.” - Richard Kershaw