Round Mountain Sauvignon Blanc

Serve with caprese or chicken caesar salad.

This is an old vineyard located on one of the highest slopes on our farm. The block was under contract to another winery for many years and this is just the third year we have made wine from the grapes. The soils are a moderately textured deomposed granite. It is an excellent site that gives a nice balance of flavour.

After about 8 months on the lees, the wine was carefully racked, given a light fining and bottled with minimal filtration.

Details of vinification and oaking: This is from one of the older blocks on our farm, but because it was under contract to another winery, for many years we never produced wine from the grapes ourselves. We admit that we have a difficult relationship with Sauvignon Blanc. We find many examples to be rather under-ripe and simple — all primary fruit and acid and falling apart after a year in bottle. This vineyard produces concentrated fruit with excellent natural acidity and good ageing potential and we have tried to apply traditional winemaking practices to bring out the best in the wine. The grapes were pressed and allowed to settle naturally and racked slightly “dirty” to barrel for fermentation. Mainly older, neutral oak was used. Malo-lactic fermentation was not encouraged, but a few of the barrels inevitably go through naturally. The partial malo and lees stirring helps to balance the higher acidity and gives the wine some added palate weight.

Stark-Condé Wines is located in the picturesque Jonkershoek Valley in Stellenbosch. It is a dramatic valley with steep changes in vineyard elevation from 150 to 600 metres making for a range of sites with distinct characteristics. At Stark-Condé they stick to traditional winemaking methods: open tank fermentation meticulous sorting of grapes hand-punchdowns basket pressing and maturation in small French oak barrels.