A pretty, floral and bright expression showing wild strawberry, cherries and candyfloss. A savoury, herbal edge and gentle but lip-smacking tannins balance the fruit. A wine that beautifully expresses its high altitude site in the Piekenierskloof mountains. The finish is dry, long, slightly saline and very moreish.

Gentle and minimum intervention with a ‘hands-off ’ approach to reflect the terroir of the Citrusdal mountains. After handpicking in the early morning, bunches were destemmed into small fermenting tanks, keeping 20% whole clusters. I allowed four days of cold soaking on skins for flavour to develop before a natural fermentation started. Punch downs were done by hand, twice a day, resulting in gentle extraction, preserving the grape’s natural character. An additional post-fermentation maceration of 10 days was allowed to extract the finer, softer tannins. After a total of 4 weeks on the skins, grapes were gently pressed with an old basket press into older French oak 225 L barrels for malolactic fermentation and maturation. 16 months in barrel and no fining. Bottled in August 2023.

ANALYSIS: ALC 12.5% | RS 2.2 g/l | TA 5.1 g/l | pH 3.44