Conservation Coast Chardonnay

The grapes were handpicked in the early morning on 10th March 2014 into 18kg lug boxes at a Balling of 23.2°. Once picked the grapes were placed in cold storage for overnight cooling to a temperature of 4°C. The following day the grape bunches were hand sorted before being put straight into the press for whole bunch pressing up to 1.2 Bar. Thereafter the juice is moved to tank where it remained untouched for one to two days and allowed to settle. The juice was then racked off its lease and allowed to heat up naturally before being inoculated with Lallemand ICV D21 yeast at 30g/hl and then moved to barrel for fermentation to take place for nineteen days. The lees was stirred every day for two weeks directly after fermentation and then twice a week for three months thereafter.

The grapes come from eleven-year-old CY5 clone vines on north facing slopes. The vines experience, on average, 750mm of rain each year with south-easterly winds in the spring and summer and north-westerly winds in the autumn and winter. The soil is composed of a Longlands/Avalon soil and a fine Table Mountain sandstone of which 15% is clay. Along with natural rainfall, the vines are supplemented with under vine micro jet irrigation in every second row.

The wine was then racked off its lees, given a light sulphuring and allowed four months maturation before being given a light filtration and bottled.