La Beryl Blanc is a traditional straw wine or vin de paille style dessert wine. The grapes are allowed to dry on straw mats prior to fermentation, raising the sugar levels and intensifying the flavours. This wine is named to honour my late mother, Beryl Back. Charles Back
IN THE VINEYARD
The 2009 was made exclusively using Chenin Blanc grapes, harvested from our Fairview farm in Paarl. This is a 32 year old vineyard grown on decomposed granite soils, with koffieklip subsoils.
HARVEST DATE
The grapes were harvested over a 5 day period in mid February 2009. The reason for this is that the bunches are individually picked when they are perfectly ripe, and therefore the vineyard is passed through a number of times until all the grapes have been brought in. It is also a very labour intensive harvesting process, as each bunch has any damaged or imperfect berries carefully removed while in the vineyard. This takes a long time to complete.
WINEMAKING
The harvesting was done extremely carefully so as not to damage any fruit. The grapes were harvested at approximately 21.5 degrees balling. Picked into small lug boxes, the grapes were transported to a well ventilated shed where they were carefully laid out on racks lined with straw to dry. It took about four weeks for the grapes to dry out to a ‘raisiny’ state, losing up to 75% of their moisture. They were then pressed and allowed to ferment in stainless steel tanks. Fermentation lasted six months, before the wine was filtered and bottled.
WINEMAKER’S COMMENTS
The 2009 vintage was dry and warm and this has resulted in a wine of deep concentration. Following the wet conditions in 2008 it was a pleasure to make this wine during a dry harvest period with no threat of rot setting in. Anthony de Jager
TASTING NOTE
The 2009 shows opulent, tropical fruit on the nose. Ripe pear, red apple and papaya are laced with subtle fragrance and honeysuckle florals. Palate texture is integrated and well rounded, with a lingering silkiness that shows off the fruit. There is a crisp acidity, balancing the wine well and finishing cleanly after along finish.
WINE ANALYSIS:
Wine of Origin Paarl
Alcohol 12.9%
Residual sugar 194.2 g/l
Total acid 10.1 g/l
pH 3.58
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