International Wine & Spirit Competition 2006 - Bronze
Swiss International Air Lines Wine Awards 2006 – Seal of Approval
Colour: Clear brilliant with flashes of green.
Nose: Tropical fruit aromas combined with green fig, gauva and gooseberry.
Palate: Seamlessly layered flavours ranging from tropical fruit to fig, lime, gauva and gooseberry, leading up to a crisp finish.
Martin recommends savouring the wine on its own slightly chilled or served with seafood and pastas.
in the vineyard : The grapes were sourced from six of the nine growers in the Durbanville Hills group. Three of these have high-altitude vineyards grown on the south-east slopes of Hooge Bergs Valley, cooled by mists and the Southeaster, where lower than average temperatures make for slow ripening and intense flavour retention. Some grapes from low-lying, south-western facing vineyards on Maastricht, Bloemendal and Klein Roosboom were used to contribute a full-bodied character.
The winter preceding the 2005 vintage was dry and the crucial flavour producing ripening period for Sauvignon Blanc grapes were cool, resulting in small berries with concentrated flavour. The grapes were healthy and ripened earlier than normal, so harvesting was completed before the hot spells which occurred later in the season.
The Sauvignon Blanc varietal character of the grapes especially from the higher slopes was very strong resulting in wines with lots of green pepper, gooseberry and tropical fruit characters.
in the cellar : Crushing and juice handling that varied from immediate draining to four hours skin contact was conducted under dry ice (CO2) to preserve the typical delicate flavours that are fragile during these first stages of the winemaking process. Cold fermentation at 12 – 14ºC, followed by extended contact with the lees for almost three months, contributed to the full mouth feel of the wine. The wines from the different vineyards were vinified separately according to the specific intrinsics of the grapes and blended shortly before bottling.