Cellar Foot Hárslevelü 2011

Golden in colour with a lime green tinge. Initial notes of spice and herbs appear on the nose, quite similar to Syrah. These blow off after time and more subtle elegant perfumes arise. The acidity is naturally high and this will allow the wine to age for quite some time. The high mineral notes on the mouth leave an extremely long nutty finish unlike any other wine from this country.

variety : Harslevelü [ 100% Hárslevelü ]

winery : Lammershoek Farms & Winery

winemaker : Craig Hawkins

wine of origin : Swartland

analysis : alc : 12.5 % vol rs : 4.5 g/l pH : 3.32 ta : 6.5 g/l

type : White style : Dry taste : Herbaceous

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

ageing : 10 Years

in the vineyard : This wine is made from a 0.7ha block of 31 year old vines planted here at Lammershoek by Pongrácz himself. The site is north-west facing and has a lot of the exposed Lammershoek granite which is abundant in the Paardeberg. The bushvines are farmed dry-land and organically.

about the harvest: 2011 was challenging due to the fact that we had intense heat early on in January which created small berries that were packed with concentration but also reduced yields. Nevertheless both flavour and acidity were intensified which is evident in the high acidity of the wine.

in the cellar : The grapes were picked purely on taste, as all our grapes are, resulting in a wine that is a healthy 12.5% in alcohol. The whole bunches were pressed by foot in a basket press and then the juice poured directly into a 400L 5th fill French cask without settling or clarification of any kind. No yeasts or other additives were added at any stage and the wine was made completely without the use of sulphur dioxide (even at bottling). Malolactic fermentation was completed and the wine has a resulting natural acidity of 6.5g/l.

The wine aged in barrel on its original lees without racking for 18 months before bottling without fining and filtering (directly from barrel). Initially the fermentation smells were very similar to that of Syrah – very spicy. This spiciness is a character that remains on the finished wine and is noticeable on many other Hárslevelüs from Hungary whether they come from Somló or Tokaji and is a definite trait of the grape. Just 550 bottles were made.

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