Man In The Moon 2017
Clairette blanche
Tasting Notes
Clairette blanche is another varietal that has a long history of producing wine and brandy in the Western Cape, but now seldom sees a bottling under its own name. It is a varietal that we have been working with for 4 years now through the old Eikenhof vineyard on the Polkadraai hills. A partnership with the grower and a handful of winemakers has allowed this vineyard to flourish and produce wonderful wines.
Man in the Moon is one of our more “left-field”wines. It is as much perfumed as it is fruit-driven. The nose shows talc perfume, citrus rind, and brine notes. It is light and textured in the mouth with flavours of burnt sugar, white nectarine, orange flower, rooibos leaf and sweet herbal tones. There is a dusting of fine tannins from the skin-fermented portion of the wine. It is “grippy”, with a great interplay of perfume, earthy and fruity flavours that makes for an engaging and interesting wine.
Nuts & Bolts
Clairette blanche - Stellenbosch – 35 year old vineyard on weathered granite soils
Residual sugar – 1.2 g/L
Total acidity – 5.6 g/L
pH 3.43
About The Wine
Despite the predominantly dry conditions in the Western Cape, the Eikenhof vineyard did not struggle with vigour during the growing season, producing its normal prolific canopy in the high density planting. Dry conditions ensured that we were picking perfectly clean fruit.
A portion of the Clairette blanche is destemmed and fermented on skins for about a week in open vats. We keep the cap submerged with gentle punch downs during this fermentation before the wines are pressed to old oak barrels. This portion of the wine gives us spice, texture and weight.
The remaining Clairette blanche is whole-bunch pressed directly to old barrels to produce a more elegant and straight-forward portion of the wine. These different portions are blended before bottling to achieve the right weight in the mouth.
During their 9 months in barrel, we keep the wines topped-up regularly and ensure that sulphur dioxide levels are kept as low as possible. The wines are bottled without fining and filtration to ensure that their expression is as natural as possible.