Stellenzicht Semillon Reserve 2001

Brilliant lime-green colour. Full-ripe limey, citrus-fruit aromas, mixed with vanilla and smoky oak. A burst of fruit on the palate: citrus again, but also peaches and apricots, with a very attractive element of sweetness and toasty oak. Full-bodied, combining marmalade zest with butterscotch cream. Soft, typically waxy mouthfeel. The finish is long. A concentrated, high-powered wine! SÃ©millon is the ultimate food wine.

It can match weighty fish and seafood dishes like sole meuniÃ©re, trout with almonds, and deep-fried calamari. It is a most suitable partner to a wide range of flavourful dishes created from veal, poultry and smoked meat. Delicious with tuna or nicoise salads or a bowl of mixed greens dressed with a combination of SÃ©millon (instead of vinegar) and walnut oil.

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variety : Semillon [ Semillon ]

winery : Stellenzicht Vineyards

winemaker : Guy Webber

wine of origin : Coastal

analysis : alc : 14.48 % vol rs : 2.5 g/l pH : 3.18 ta : 5.4 g/l va : 0.41 g/l so2 : 129 mg/l fso2 : 57 mg/l

wooded

pack : Bottle

AWARDS

For three consecutive years the 1996, 1997 and 1998 Stellenzicht SÃ©millon Reserves were judged the best South African white wines at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in London. The latest vintage, 2001, again presents weight and concentrated fruit. SÃ©millon connoisseurs, bent on that classic combination of lemony and sweet/sour citrus fruit with a lanolin-like â€œwaxyâ€ texture, will find much appeal in this vintage.

ageing : The Stellenzicht SÃ©millons are renowned for their longevity. The 2001 is drinking well already, but, like a great white wine of Bordeaux, it will unfold even more and put on further weight when cellared. It shows very good overall balance which bodes well for the future.

in the vineyard : SÃ©millon is the mainstay of white Bordeaux in France. In South Africa this variety, known ubiquitously as Wine Grape and Green Grape until this century, was first planted by Governor Simon van der Stel in the 1680s, but it was the French Huguenots who are credited for popularising SÃ©millon at the Cape.

For many years, though, SÃ©millon has been considered an â€œordinaryâ€ grape producing rather â€œordinaryâ€ white wine which has done little to attract the attention of the wine-loving public. Fortunately the tide has turned dramatically, when Stellenzicht and consequently a fistful of other wineries started to produce top quality, new-look wines that re-established a new identity for South African sÃ©millon.

While closer in its inherent aroma and flavour profile to Sauvignon Blanc, SÃ©millon is more like Chardonnay in its weighty, essentially bland character when made in its unembellished form. And, like Chardonnay, it blossoms when given wood treatment. Oak seems to bring out its tropical and citrus-fruit flavours and gives the wine a slightly sweet, creamy overlay of toffee and butterscotch - all in evidence in Stellenzichtâ€™s latest release.

The SÃ©millon vines that were planted in 1986 in decomposed granite soil, are grafted onto Richter 99 rootstock. They are grown on a five-wire fence and received no supplementary irrigation. The yield was a very low 3.58 tonnes per hectare.

about the harvest: The grapes were harvested on 28 February 2001 at an average Balling of 24.7 degrees.

in the cellar : Only free-run juice was gathered in stainless-steel tanks where the first 10Âº Balling were fermented out, following inoculation with the Vin 13 yeast strain. 75% of the wine was then transferred to new oak barrels of which 5% were of Hungarian oak and 95% of French oak. Fermentation lasted for thirteen days and thereafter, malolactic fermentation was allowed to continue until 70% complete. Regular batonage took place in the barrels with the wine maturing on its lees for 10 months. After stabilization, the wine was ready to be bottled on 22 February 2002. A total of 770 cases was bottled.

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