The Luddite Chenin is a real “push the boat out” wine. 2016 was very dry and warm and therefore our crops were down due to dry vineyard farming. As a result, our picking date was a week earlier than 2015. We still pick earlier than most producers so that we can retain our natural acidity and freshness. The wine was fermented naturally on skins with morning and evening punch downs. After fermentation, the grapes were pressed and racked with lees and sediment into 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.
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:
Luddite Farm House Block harvested on 10th February 2016
Average analysis of fruit at harvest
21.8° Balling, TA – 6.7 g/l, pH – 3.3
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Rich, golden straw hue.
**Nose: ** Nutty hints of crème brulé, spice, green gage plums and Star Anise.
Palate: Clean refreshing entry. Pears and green melon on fore palate. Long lean after taste with a
spicy refreshing citrus length.
Analysis of the wine
Alcohol: 12.9%
pH: 3.47
TA: 5.9 g/l
RS: 1.6 g/l