The wine’s appearance is clear and medium straw-coloured with thick legs indicative of high viscosity. Packed with apricot, spice and honey characteristics on the nose. The mouth feel is full and impressively rich but with superb balance, the result of elegant Sauvignon Blanc acidity. The aftertaste seems to linger forever.
Technical Tasting Sheets:
Noble rot wines make for a great combination with foie gras and duck liver parfait. Alternatively, cream and custard-based preparations like the Italian panna cotta and French crème brûlée will both be beautiful matches with a Noble Late Harvest.
The 2019 vintage will be remembered as one that followed the most severe drought in South Africa during 2018. In the second half of 2018, supporting rainfall ensured good soil moisture with cool and moderate ripening and harvesting conditions for 60% of the intake of the 2019 vintage. The 2019 crop was medium sized, resulting in some excellent wines.
Once the grapes were harvested, 8 weeks later than Sauvignon Blanc for our dry wine, it weighed only 4 tons. The juice was fermented to 11% alcohol and the wine was left with a high residual sugar content. The 2019 vintage of Noble Late Harvest grapes delivered a mere 380 litres per ton, approximately half the volume compared to regular Sauvignon Blanc grapes, resulting in a limited produced and highly sought-after wine.
2012
- SA Terroir Wine Awards Top Dessert Wine
- IWSC Silver