Filia Chenin Blanc Brut Nature Magnum 2015

The Paardeberg - or horse mountain, was named by the first European settlers who thought it fitting due to the abundance of Quaggas (Cape Mountain Zebra) that roamed this fynbos thicket covered granite slopes of the Swartland. Today this beautiful part of our country is known for its verdant rolling wheat fields, ancient soils and a treasure trove of gnarled old bush vines.
Nuwedam farm is our little corner of this unique terroir–purchased by my father in 1956 - who planted these dry land farmed bush vines in 1976.   They bear miniscule yields of fruit from which I craft my sparkling wine, expressing my passion and the essence of the terroir for the world to taste. 

We hand harvested the scanty 4 tons of golden green clusters of Chenin Blanc over two days - as I wanted to avoid the heat of the day I only picked in the early morning hours. The fruit was harvested in 20kg lug-boxes and put in cold storage unit. The fruit was whole-bunch pressed at the lowest possible pressure, with only the finest free-run juice kept and settled over-night. Racked and left to its own devices, with a check-up on cooling and nutrition, the yeast is allowed to manoeuvrenaturally at its own pace with no interference. Subsequently left on its lees for approx. 8 months, before it was time to go into bottle. At this stagetheliquer de tirage for the next fermentis  added and the bottles ware left on lees for 30 months before being  disgorged. This Kaap Klassiek was disgorged Zero Dosage - i.e. no additions of any syrup or liqueur, but only topped up with the contents of another bottle before corking.
This bottle fermented sparkling wine was crafted with inspiration from methodé tradionelle, utilising artisanal vinification techniques and 100% dry-land, sustainably farmed bush vine Chenin Blanc from Nuwedam, Paardeberg, in the Swartland.