A.A. BADENHORST Secateurs Riviera 2022

The grapes used are from an old Chenin blanc vineyard situated next to a dry river since 1972. Just to sound fancy, we call it Riviera. The soils are sandy decomposed granite. We pick the grapes when the tannins are ripe and the fruit has turned golden yellow from the Swartland sun

This is a skin macerated/carbonic maceration wine which means that, unlike most conventional white wines, the fermentation takes place on the skins and has the character of this process. Fruit is picked by hand and cooled in a refrigerated room overnight. Around 60% of the grapes are placed partially whole bunch and partially destemmed in concrete tanks. Some juice is pressed and run on top of the grapes to get the fermentation going. Some juice is run off into old casks towards the end of fermentation after which more whole bunches and destemmed grapes are used to fill the tank once again – continuous fermentation kind of approach. The tank is eventually pressed after about 3 weeks.

The wine matures for 10 months in old casks on top of the gross lees. The wine is bottled straight from cask and usually has a slight haze as no filtration is done either before or during bottling.

Chenin blanc 63%, Bukettraube 20%, Sauvignon blanc 9%, Roussanne 8%.