On arrival at the winery all grapes were first destemmed and crushed to stainless steel tanks (via a chiller in order to drop the temperature to 4ºC or 39ºF) where they were then left to cold soak for 74 hours. Following this time the free-run juice was drained by gravity from the tanks. The remaining skins and juice were then dug-out and gently squeezed using pneumatic presses in order to separate light from hard pressings. The resulting juices were then left to cold settle (at 10ºC/50ºF) for 4 days following which time 26% of the blend was racked to stainless steel tanks, inoculated with selected yeasts and ultra-cool fermented (reaching temperatures as low as 6.5ºC/44ºF at the peak of the fermentation). Following fermentation this component was aged for 2 months on gross lees (without stirring) before blending.
The remaining 74% of the blend was fermented with selected yeasts in 2nd and 3rd use French oak barrels with temperatures peaking at 22ºC/72ºF. Post fermentation the barrels were stirred weekly in order to encourage lees break-down and the subsequent pick-up of “yeasty” characters in the wine. After two months the barrel component was blended with the tank fermented component, cold stabilised, filtered and bottled.

Vineyard : All fruit was sourced from our own vineyard – located within the coolest, westernmost reaches of the Casablanca Valley. A blend of two different clones of Sauvignon Blanc (64% clone 107 and 36% clone 242) from 9 year old vines. Sourced from hillside blocks planted on a red clay mixed with decomposed granite. The blocks used in this blend were cropped at an average of 6.5 tonnes per hectare (2.6 t/acre).
Harvest : The grapes were carefully machine harvested at night, with an ambient temperature of between 6 and 10ºC (43 to 50ºF) between March 9th and March 23rd, 2012.