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In the old family
cellar, with hand-plastered clay walls, Lourens works
closely with his right-hand man, John Sebonika, to
steer the grapes through the press, into the tanks,
barrels and finally the bottle. It is a hands-on process,
with the focus on gentle handling, the gravity fed
movement of the wine and a personal selection of yeasts
and wooden casks for maturation. All the labeling
is also done on the farm, by hand.
“It is important to keep every different clone
and grapes from different slopes separate during harvest,
as well as in the cellar. It gives more components
for the winemaker to experiment with and the opportunity
to make a wine with complex flavours”
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Chardonnay
- Wild Yeast Viognier
- Shiraz
- Cabernet Sauvignon
The Sauvignon blanc grapes are harvested early in
the morning to capture their full flavour. The grapes
are picked in six different stages and each one-ton
parcel is processed individually. The grapes are crushed,
de-stemmed and the skins and juice go into a gravity
base tank. After cold maceration the juice is drained,
through gravity flow, into 300L wooden casks for juice
clarification.
The juice will settle on the lees at a 12C°, until
the winemakers instinct lets him draw it off into
a base tank for fermentation. The first few parcels
of wine will ferment with wild yeast, while the remainder
will be inoculated with native yeast.
After the fermentation process the wine goes into
3000l stainless steel tanks for ageing on the lees
– a period decided by the palate of the winemaker.
The wine then goes through cold stabilization before
fining and bottling.
Arendsig Sauvignon Blanc – This is an elegant,
crisp wine with green-pea aromas and a tropical fruit
palate.
Picked at optimum ripeness to ensure he captures their
fruit flavours, Lourens gently presses the Chardonnay
grapes in a 1000 liter press. The free run juice goes
directly into French oaks barrels to clarify, and
after 2 days is then put back into the gravity base
tank.
The wine then goes back into barrel for fermentation.
Lourens allows the grapes to ferment with their naturally
present ‘wild’ yeast for 50% of the time
before he inoculates with a specifically chose yeast
strain. After going through natural malolactic fermentation,
which helps give the wine a good rounded mouth feel,
the wine is then aged on the lees. This period varies
from year to year. The wine is then racked and bottled.
Arendsig Chardonnay is a delicate wine with a typical
lemon/tropical fruit nose, fine citrus on the palate
with buttery undertones that support a gentle, lingering
aftertaste.
This is Lourens ‘wildcard’ wine! Made
from just 10 rows of vines this one ton parcel of
grapes is crush, de-stemmed and then the skins and
juice go into a gravity base tank. Skin contact is
maintained for 2 days, at 16C°, The free run juice
is then put into barrels for settling. As soon as
fermentation begins the wine is put into new French
Oak barrels to ferment, using only the natural yeast
present on the grapes. This wild yeast fermentation
can take up to 3 months to complete. After malolactic
fermentation has occurred the wine is regularly stirred
to help ensure intense fruit aromas in the bottle.
Arendsig Wild Yeast Viognier – a wine infused
with rich tropical fruit, with an up front palate
showing good integration between wood and fruit.
Planted on well-drained limestone the juice from the
Shiraz grapes is concentrated and of exceptional quality.
The berries are gently separated from the stalks and
put into 500l wooden casks. The juice extracts color
and fruit from the skins and after 4 days wild yeast
fermentation will start.
Three times a day the wine will be racked and then
returned to the barrel, under a French micro-oxidation
method called Delactash, to ensure optimal fruit extraction.
At 5° Balling the free run juice is separated
from the berries, which are then put through a basket
press and this juice is added to the free run juice.
The juice then finishes fermentation in a tank before
going back into specifically chosen barrels malolactic
fermentation and ageing. Usually 90% French oak and
10% Hungarian oak is used, with perhaps some American
oak barrels depending on the character Lourens wishes
to bring to his wine.
More coming soon...
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