Michelangelo International Wine Award 2002 - Silver
Pale straw/green hues. Intense gooseberry and red currant fruit nose. A long, full-flavoured gooseberry/herbaceous palate with a crisp, yet perfectly balanced finish. This wine must accompany you on your summer’s day picnic on the Stellenbosch Wine route. Smoked salmon and Cream Cheese salad, Smoked Snoek Pate, Roast Chicken, Bell Pepper and Lime Leaf Quiche must be some of your menu highlights.
in the vineyard : This vineyard location (10 km from the Atlantic Ocean) seems tailor-made for flavourful Sauvignon Blanc. The soil is a well-drained sandy loam with weathered granite. The fruit grows in the Helderberg Hills; this Coastal area yields wines with an intensity of flavour and crispness not found in some of the more inland regions.
A combination of trellised and bush vines are used, aged approximately 15 years, all of which are grown on a high Southern (cooler) slope, facing the Atlantic Ocean. Soils differ from a sandy loam to deeper weathered granite. A choice of rootstocks R99 and 101-14 Mgt are used, depending on the potential of the particular soil-type. The average yields of these vines differ between 5 to 10 tons per hectare. This interaction of vine, site, soil, marine climate and cultivation (terroir) yields complex fruit of outstanding quality.
about the harvest: Very similar to 1998, however with the benefit of early morning and night harvesting the wine is now seeing the benefits of more judicious handling. Sunny and dry weather during the final ripening stage and the grapes were harvested at 23° Balling in February.