Perdeberg The Dry Land Collection Courageous Barrel Fermented Chenin Blanc 2022

ageing : 

Ready to be enjoyed now with the potential to age further for eight years at optimum storage conditions.

Under extreme conditions, Mother Nature provides its best fruit. The Dry Land Collection wines pays homage to its testing terroir, showcasing the uniqueness of wines produced from dry land vineyards. Created in a new world style, these wines are complex with ample fruit structure. Each wine holds a symbolic name that shares a characteristic of its source.

The grapes were de-stemmed, whereafter skin contact followed for two hours. Great care was taken to ensure clear, free-run juice is extracted before fermentation, as it infuses the pure, concentrated fruitiness of the dry land grapes into the wine.

Made in a rich and ripe wooded style, this Chenin Blanc was fermented and matured in 500-litre French oak barrels, of which 80% older barrels are two to six years old, and the remaining 20% are new French oak barrels. The wine spent ten months in the barrels and was aged a further six months in the bottle. The wine was kept on the lees until bottling, with no lees stirring. No malolactic fermentation took place to keep the natural Chenin Blanc acidity.

In combination with the age-old traditions of Dry Land viticulture, it resulted in a very aromatic and richly textured wine, with characteristics typical to Chenin Blanc grown under dry land conditions.