Skurfberg Chenin Blanc Eben sadie

Skufberg

75.00 €

Skurfberg, Eben Sadie Family

100% Chenin Blanc

12 months in old Foudres

VINIFICATION |

The grapes are picked in small 20kg picking crates and then placed in a cooling room to reduce the temperature. We consider this an essential step in the Swartland where temperatures are often 35 degrees and more during harvest time; and pressing warm grapes comes with a series of potential challenges. The cooling process is followed up by whole bunch pressing. The process takes about three hours and during this time there is a margin of settling of the juice in the collecting tank. The juice is then transferred to two older foudres where it is left undisturbed until natural fermentation starts. The fermentation process can sometimes take up to 10 or more days to initiate and can last anything from 1 to 6 months, sometimes only finishing during the next spring, by which time  the malolactic fermentation would often have come to completion as well.

AGEING 

The wine is left in cask on the fermentation lees for 12 months and we bottle from the lees. We add about 50ppm of sulphur 2 weeks prior to bottling and bottle directly from the cask.

NOTES |

The Skurfberg Mountain is part of the Citrusdal mountain area and the word Skurfberg (Rugged Mountain) mainly refers to the edgy and rough appearance of the mountain. The soil is mainly weathered Table Mountain sandstone formations and tends to be very sandy.

It is a truly great site for Chenin and it is most unusual that such a warm and dry area still produces wines with this enormous texture and freshness.

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Description

Skurfberg

Eben Sadie Family (Swartland)

100% Chenin Blanc

In the cellar, the entire process from grape to wine has been simplified to its most basic steps, and all the wines, both white and red, are vinified similarly. The whites are whole-cluster pressed and left to settle for 12 hours. As minor settling is completed, we transfer the white juice to concrete and old wooden casks with high turbidity levels. The white juice is left to start its fermentation, and we will, for the first time, add 40 ppm of sulfur after the malolactic fermentation is complete. In some vintages, malolactic fermentation is completed relatively early, while in others, it may only be halfway complete by the following spring.

The whites are left on the lees till bottling. For the reds, we have 30% of the tanks filled with whole clusters and 70% of destemmed grapes. The fermentations can take anywhere from 7 to 10 days to commence, and then we start with one very small “bucket-over” daily, just wetting the cap of the grapes on top of the fermenting tank. We usually leave the reds on the skins for  month and then basket press to concrete tanks or old foudres.

The reds stay on the lees until the next Spring, and then we rack them off the lees to allow for final settling before bottling, as we bottle without filtration.

 

 

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