The Luddite Chenin is a real “push the boat out” wine. 2015 was a great year for white wines and we picked earlier than normal to allow for great, natural acidity and lower alcohol. By picking early, we could really flesh out the mid pallet with skin contact and regular batonnage. We really want to express the nature of Chenin Blanc in the Bot River area, so both batches were fermented naturally on skins with a morning and evening punch down. After fermentation, the grapes were pressed and racked with lees and sediment to barrel. I feel by doing this we have allowed the wine to express richer flavour and a fuller structure. We used old barrels to allow the natural grape expression to come through. The wine was left on lees for 12 months with regular batonnage – no sulphur was added to allow the wine to develop its own characteristics without any intervention. After blending the two batches of wine, we felt that the wine was too lean and needed a splash of Viognier just to flesh out the mid pallet and nose.
The only time we interfered with this wine was to add sulphur to protect it during the bottling process. We feel that this sulphur binds out within a couple of months, leaving, what we feel is, an absolutely natural wine.
Grapes were sourced from two vineyard sites:
Luddite Farm harvested on 16th February 2015
Avondzon Farm, Van Der Stel Pass 40 - 60 year old vines harvested on 21st February 2015
Average analysis of fruit at harvest
19.5° Balling, TA – 6.9 g/l, pH – 3.2
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Rich, golden straw hue.
**Nose: ** Limes, green melon, pear drops, cinnamon and spice.
Palate: Clean refreshing entry. Citrus, peach and melon flavours balance the rich mid pallet. The
wine finishes with a lingering spice and grapefruit freshness.
Analysis of the wine
Alcohol: 12.15%
pH: 3.36
TA: 6.3 g/l
RS: 1.6 g/l