Swartland White Wine 'Aristargos'

• 49% Chenin blanc, 10% Roussanne, 9% Sémillon, 8% Marsanne, 7% Clairette Blanche, 6% Viognier, 5% Verdelho, 4% Grenache Blanc & 2% Colombard
• Chenin blanc from shallow shale soils in the Paardeberg and iron rich clay soils to the west of Malmesbury are also added along with Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne, Verdelho and Grenache blanc from iron rich clay, lateral shale soils
• For the first time, Colombard was also added
• Planting dates vary from 1960 until 2013
• The grapes were whole bunch pressed and naturally fermented and then matured for 11 months in old neutral French oak barrels
• The grapes from the two Sémillon vineyards were fermented on their skins for a week before being pressed and matured in a very old 2 500 L foudre for a year
• The Colombard was also fermented on the skins (for 5 days) and matured in an old oak barrel
• One Chenin blanc component was fermented and matured in a concrete egg
• In total the grapes from 17 different vineyards were used, picked on 23 different dates

Resources

Press & Reviews