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 2008 was made using Chenin Blanc grapes, harvested from two vineyard sites. The first is a 29 year old untrellised, dryland vineyard at the Primo farm in the Agter-Paarl area. The second component was from a 31 year old vineyard at Fairview. This vineyard is grown on decomposed granite soils, with koffieklip subsoils.
HARVEST DATES:
Fruit was harvested over a 10 day period in mid February 2008.
WINEMAKING:
The harvesting was done extremely carefully so as not to damage any fruit. The grapes were harvested at 22 degrees balling. Picked into small lug boxes, the grapes were transported to a well ventilated shed to 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 took five months, before the wine was filtered and bottled.
WINEMAKER’S COMMENTS:
The 2008 vintage is again produced from 100% old vine Chenin Blanc. We had three bouts of rain through the harvest in 2008, so harvest needed to be done carefully as the grapes were slightly more juicy on the vine. The wine looks quite refined with clean fruit flavours but these will develop and intensify with time in the bottle. Anthony de Jager
RECOGNITION: PREVIOUS VINTAGES
2006: Gold – Classic Wine Trophy 2007
2006: 4 ½ star – Platter’s Wine Guide
2005: Great Gold – Concours Mondial de Bruxelles 2006
2005: 4 ½ star – Platter’s Wine Guide
TASTING NOTE:
Rich aromas of honeyed fruit and floral fragrance. Opulent, silky mouthfeel; apricot and citrus rind flavours with a slight nuttiness on the finish. Good balance of acidity and sweetness, with long finish.
WINE ANALYSIS:
WINE OF ORIGIN: Paarl
ALCOHOL: 12.71%
RESIDUAL SUGAR: 129.6g/l
TOTAL ACID: 8.1g/l
pH: 3.27
Do you like this? Share It!
Post comment
