Pilgrim Wines Chenin Blanc 2019
This wine was made from beautiful 35 year old vines planted in decomposed sandstone and clay in the Voor-Paardeberg. There is a great balance with a big length to this wine. There is a huge sense of age worthiness, it has a acidity that cuts through a lot of that primary sweet fruit on the nose, pulling through to the palate.
Tasting Notes
Situated roughly 10km out of Wellington and Paarl, the Voor Paardeberg Region is a warm growing climate region. Prevailing winds from the West Coast keeps the vineyard cool during the summer, allowing for aeration in the canopy and air flow through the bunches thus preventing mildew from developing. The soil is made up of mostly decomposed Paardeberg sandstone and some clay materials. The perfect soils for the Chenin blanc!
Voor Paardeberg region mainly cultivates dryland vineyards, which means that the better winter rain of 2018/2019 was extremely welcome.
2018 May and June were reasonably cold and wet – sufficient to meet the vineyards’ cold needs. A very warm period towards the end of July caused some vineyards to experience early bud burst. However, inconsistent weather conditions during September with regular cold fronts slowed shoot growth and bud burst. This led to uneven growth patterns in most cases.
Strong winds during the flowering period also led to uneven/poor berry set and this eventually led to lower productions. The temperatures were very moderate during December and January.
As soon as the shoot growth caught up, the consensus was that the vineyards’ canopies were the best in years, due to sufficient winter rain in Voor Paardeberg area, although the drought from the past three years still leant to smaller bunches.
The first heat wave only occurred at the beginning of February. We harvested our Chenin towards the end of February.
After the grapes were cooled down, we proceeded to press a third of the production as whole bunch clusters.
The rest of the production we destemmed and crushed into bins, and put back into the cool room for some additional skin cold soaking.
After 7 days’ worth of cold soaking at 10 degrees Celsius, we pressed half of the volume that was originally crushed. This accounted to another third.
Then lastly we fermented the last third of the production – still in bins – on the skins until dry. We had daily punch downs and concentrated extraction of the flavour in the skins. The wine was left on the skins for an additional 5 days after a complete fermentation.
These 3 portions were all separately fermented and then after all 3 were completely fermented, these portions were blended and put into neutral barrels for 8 months for maturation.
Color: Golden light yellow with a slight green tinge
Nose: Due to our unconventional methodology, this wine is characterized by bursts of flavour, typically predominated by stone fruit like apricot, peach and pear.
Some barrel influenced evolved aromas will also be prevalent, like cream, vanilla, some toffee and caramel.
Due to the total skin fermented portion, the wine shows off a different dimension of orange marmalade and lemon blossom.
Palate: It has a volume on the mouthfeel that transcends the norm, almost ethereal in a sense as it feels weighty and full but in tasting it, it ends off with a beautiful mineral salinity, so light to the touch with a vibrancy, it leaves you wanting some more. It has a really great potential for aging as well…
Alc: 13.5 %
RS: 2.5 g/l
pH: 3.37
TA: 5.3 g/l
VA: 0.61 g/l
Potato salad with rocket and a granadilla dressing.
This is a wonderful potato salad that is fresh and tangy, a great alternative to the traditional mayo potato salad that we all know so well. The Pilgrim Chenin Blanc is a perfect pairing with this fresh summer salad perfect for picnics and summer entertainment. The tartness of the salad cuts through the rich and smoothness of the Chenin Blanc and compliments each other beautifully.
Get your bottle of Pilgrim Chenin Blanc at orders@pilgrimwines.co.za
Serves 8 people
Ingredients:
2 kg baby potatoes, roasted
¼ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
1 teaspoon honey
Juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 small red onion, chopped
¼ cup pickled gherkins, chopped
3 Granadillas pulp
300g fresh rocket
Fresh sprigs of basil
Salt and pepper
Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 200oC. Halve the baby potatoes, put them in a roasting dish, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Roast them for 40 minutes until tender.
While the potatoes are cooling, make the dressing. Mix the olive oil, mustard, honey, lemon juice, garlic, onion, gherkins, and granadilla pulp together. The best way for me to do this is to throw everything in a big jar and shake it vigorously. Pour the salad dressing over the potatoes and carefully mix, be careful not to break the potatoes.
Lay a bed of rocket on the bottom of a salad bowl and top it with the roasted potatoes, season well with salt and pepper. End it of with fresh sprigs of basil.
