| WINE | Radford Dale | ||||||||
| VARIETAL | Renaissance Chenin Blanc | ||||||||
| VINTAGE | 2010 | ||||||||
| APPELLATION | Stellenbosch (Helderberg), South Africa | ||||||||
| ANALYSIS |
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| PRODUCTION | 327 (12 x 750ml.) cases |
VINEYARDS & HARVEST
The fruit for this wine is grown in a single block of old, un-irrigated bush vine Chenin on the foot slopes of the Helderberg Mountain, facing south across False Bay and the Southern Atlantic Ocean. These vines, grown in Clovely soils (decomposed granite), are mature and virus free, usually yielding about 30 - 32 hl / ha (4.5 T / ha), though in 2010 that dropped to 26 hl / ha. With deep root systems plunging into the granite sub-rock these old vines proved more resistant to the hot 2010 Summer and provided wonderful intensity of flavours in the fruit. The 2010 vintage is our second bottling of this wine (the maiden-release 2009 Renaissance Chenin was after a decade of experimentation and trials) and clearly demonstrates how a great vineyard site such as this, coupled with half a century-old vines, takes in its stride the curve balls nature can throw at it. The fruit of 2010 translated into a wine with wonderful balance, purity and freshness. The 2010 harvest is increasingly recognised in Stellenbosch as a great Chenin Blanc vintage. The initial picking happened during the 1st week of February, the grapes were all hand-picked, at first light, into small lug-bins and hand-sorted over our sorting table. Likewise for the second picking, just over a week later. We divided the block into two pickings in order to balance fresh acidity with complexity of flavours.
VINIFICATION
Whole bunch pressed, with the free-run juice settled for two days before being poured into barrel. Alcoholic fermentation entirely carried out in barrel (using entirely natural ambient yeast) for 8 – 10 weeks. Cellar maintained very cold at about 10° Celsius (fermentation peaking at about 18 °), then temperature dropped to 7°. Malo inhibited, by the cold. Battonnage applied weekly during the first two months, then monthly or periodically for the following months. Racked out of barrel after about 10 ½ months, assembled and then settled for a month. Bottled in January 2011 –just as we were preparing to get started with harvest of the following vintage.
BARRELS
100% of the wine was barrel fermented & matured, using only artisanal Burgundy cooperages Allier & Vosges 228 L barrels. A mix of 4th, 3rd, 2nd fill and new, with under 20% being new.
WINEMAKER'S COMMENTS
The over-riding characteristic given to this wine by its vines and its environment is its complex minerality and its persistent and yet elegant intensity. Notes of lemon pervade the quenching beam of acidity, penetrating and weaving through the ripe glycerol and lifting the gentle spice and biscuit flavours, carrying them on the citrus palate long after the wine is gone. Such natural attributes would be wasted on the too-habitual crutches of over-oaking and dollops of residual sugar, so popular among winemakers who seem to put chemistry, medals and -too often- ego before the individual character and intrinsic qualities of this, South Africa’s most noble grape. Often shunned and disrespected by winemakers and consumers alike, there is, in certain worthy quarters, an ascending realization of the tremendous potential of this grape, Chenin Blanc. As devotees of true character and finesse often swim upstream against the populous tide, a fresh generation of Chenin producers is bringing to the surface some of the most interesting, bright, mineral and idiosyncratic wines of the Cape. The Radford Dale Renaissance Chenin Blanc is in the spirit of these terrific new wines and is all about the Renaissance of the great grape that is Chenin Blanc.