Cellar Foot Hárslevelü 2012

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 become evident. The acidity is naturally high and this will allow the wine to age for quite some time. There is a particularly high acidity in the 2012 vintage because of the intense heat and stress the vines were exposed to. We picked when the acidity and sugar balance was right thus leading to lower alcohols.

variety : Harslevelü [ 100% Hárslevelü ]

winery : Lammershoek Farms & Winery

winemaker : Craig Hawkins

wine of origin : Swartland

analysis : alc : 9.5 % vol rs : 1.7 g/l pH : 3.15 ta : 7.1 g/l

type : White style : Dry taste : Herbaceous

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

ageing : 10 - 15 Years

in the vineyard : This wine is made from a 0.7ha block of 32 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: 2012 was one of the most challenging vintages we have had. Cool dry weather allowed a slow even growing season, but this was abruptly interrupted by severe heat in early January with no rains for 3-4 months. This made conditions extremely difficult and yields were thus naturally low. Important decisions needed to be made in the vineyard of when to harvest the grapes so to allow enough material to be extracted into the final wine without allowing any unripe or over ripe flavours due to the heat. Luckily Hárslevelü is an early ripening variety.

in the cellar : The grapes were picked purely on taste, as all our grapes are, resulting in a wine that is a healthy 9.5% in alcohol. The whole bunches were pressed by foot in a basket press and then the juice poured directly into 600 litre and 300 litre 6th fill French casks 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 1.5g/l of residual sugar and a natural acidity of 7g/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 Hárslevelü from Hungary whether they come from Somló or Tokaji and is a definite trait of the grape.

email the winery

email this page

find our wines in :