Colour: The wine displays an attractive golden straw hue with a tinge of almost luminous lime green at the edges.
Bouquet: Typical citrussy aromas of lemon and lime zest abound and are backed up by faint nuances of almond, vanilla and a slight toastiness.
Taste: Tropical flavours are evident (although they will develop further with time) but it is the wonderful balance between the feisty lemon characters and the creamy butteriness which gives the wine such an attractive mouth-feel. The finish is fresh and elegant although the wine has the body and structure giving it wonderfully long resonance in the aftertaste.
The winemaker suggests serving it with fish, veal, smoked chicken salad or cream-based dishes.
in the vineyard : Background
Flanked by the Helderberg and Stellenbosch Mountain, between Stellenbosch and the False Bay coast, lies an exceptional tract of land that benefits from terroirs eminently suited to the cultivation of the highest quality wine grapes. This jewel in the crown of the magnificent Stellenbosch wine-growing region is known as the Golden Triangle. At its core lies Stellenzicht.
The award-winning Stellenzicht range reserves its Golden Triangle label for those wines which most eloquently demonstrate the unique terroir of this special part of the Helderberg, home to some of South Africa's most exceptional wines.
Vineyard Location
Planted between 1990 and 1997, the vineyards from which the fruit for this wine was harvested are grown in decomposed granite at altitudes ranging between 170m and 220m. The vines are all grafted onto nematode-resistant Richter 99 rootstocks and trellised on vertical five-wire systems. Winter pruning was done to two spurs but with select "Cazenave" bearers allowing the vineyards to yield an average of 3.4 tons per hectare. The vines received supplementary irrigations at veraison and just before ripeness.
Viticulturist: Eben Archer
in the cellar : After destalking, crushing and draining, the free-run juice was allowed to settle over-night with the clear juice being transferred to a fresh stainless steel tank where fermentation was induced with a yeast strain (D47) specially chosen for fermentation in barrels. Just after the onset of fermentation, one third of the must was transferred to new oak barrels, another third to second-fill oak barrels and the remaining third retained in tank. Both the new and the second-fill barrels consisted of 90% French oak and 10% American oak. Malolactic fermentation was initiated but only partially completed to allow some of the fresh natural acidity to remain.
With bi-weekly batonage, the wine matured on its primary fermentation lees for ten months before being finally blended, cold stabilized and prepared for bottling. A total of 12 563 bottles were filled on 21 February 2008.