Vibrant, pale golden colour. The nose shows cool climate lime and flint aromas, hinting at the minerality that provides the backbone of this wine. In its youth it shows complex, full mouthfeel with fresh melon and citrus rind flavours and a hint of fragrant honeysuckle. Crisp acidity and good tannin structure.
Winemaker's Notes:
Darling fruit from 2007 has shown very expressive characters across all white varietals, and this wine is no exception. This is evidenced by the elegant, subtle oak influence that shows on the wine even with the use of 30% new French oak. I think that we knew that we had great potential when the grapes arrived at the cellar and the fruit flavours on the wine are fantastic. I look forward to seeing how it develops in the bottle. - Anthony de Jager
Oom Pagel Semillon needs your finest culinary creations - this is for a special dinner.
variety : Semillon [ 100% Semillon ]
winemaker : Anthony de Jager
wine of origin : Darling
analysis : alc : 14.20 % vol rs : 2.8 g/l pH : 3.32 ta : 7.0 g/l
type : White taste : Fragrant wooded
pack : Bottle closure : Cork
in the vineyard : The fruit for the 2007 vintage was all harvested from our vineyards near Darling, on the West Coast. Planted in 2004, this bushvine vineyard is on deep red oakleaf soils, and is unirrigated.
As a young boy, I spent hours listening to the anecdotes of an old man who we affectionately called Oom Pagel (Uncle Pagel). He was a handsome man with a drooping moustache, a descendent of the Malay slaves brought to the Cape by the Dutch. I was fascinated by his stories which spanned a century of the life and times at Fairview. These stories instilled in me a love of the land and a respect for the people who worked it. Between all these stories, Oom Pagel still found time to grow champion vegetables. Oom Pagel's 12 children were born at Fairview, and a number of his grand and great-grand children live and work with us today. Semillon was Oom Pagel’s favourite grape, so it is fitting that we honour him with this wine. - Charles Back
in the cellar : After harvesting the bunches were whole-bunch pressed. 65% of the wine was fermented in French oak barrels (30% new wood, remainder 2nd and 3rd fill). The rest of the wine was fermented in stainless steel tanks. After fermentation, the wine was blended and left on its lees in tanks for 9 months prior to bottling.