The Mentors Grenache Blanc 2021

ageing : 

The wine can be enjoyed now or cellared for up to five years.

This wine is a reflection of what can be achieved at the KWV The Mentors cellar, where small batches of premium fruit meet modern winemaking equipment. Here too, sheer passion and love for producing excellent wines of outstanding quality is driven by a spirit of experimentation and innovation. This wine bears testament to all this. Watch it gain complexity over the next few years.

63% Paarl, 37% Wellington

Winter 2020 delivered good rainfall and cold that saw us returning to long term averages and the end of the drought that had tested all in the Western Cape for the last 5 years. Spring 2020 was defined by later bud break and particularly cool and wet conditions. Variable bud break was observed on a number of varieties. Flowering 2020 saw a continuation of this trend of cooler weather, intermittent rainfall and overcast conditions with lots of wind. The increased rainfall also brought significant disease pressure to most areas, in particular Downey Mildew. Summer has been a far cooler affair that we have been used to with particularly cool nights. This is per se a very good indicator of a quality vintage. We received only one or two warm days that were immediately followed by a cool spell all the way into late January

Smaller pockets of grapes specifically selected from different vineyard sites were hand-harvested before being crushed and de-stemmed.
Overnight settling of the juice was followed by carefully racking to the fermentation tank. 100% of the blend was fermented in barrel of which 53% was an indigenous yeast strain to enhance the texture and mouth-feel of the wine. 47% was fermented with a specially selected commercial yeast strain to enhance fruit, freshness, minerality and overall complexity. The wine was left on extended lees contact for 280 days after fermentation and stirred regularly during this period.