Description
The nose shows top notes of hay and dried herbs before pear, white peach, lemon, plus a hint of leesy complexity. The palate is medium-bodied and well-proportioned with nice energy about it – good fruit definition and driving acidity, some spicy bite to the finish. 95/100 Christian Eades WineMag
The wine shows intense white peach and pear drop on the nose, which carries forward to a stone fruit palate supported by clean mineral lines and a lees coated acidity. A great accompaniment to Thai green curries or spicy Indian dishes served with buttered naan bread. Also, a go-to wine for seared black pepper-crusted tuna on fresh garden leaves.
After reaching tremendous international and local success with Stellenrust, owners Tertius Boshoff and Kobie van der Westhuizen decided to take things back to their roots to create wines without boundaries. The old Bottelary cellar was reinstated and the birthplace of the first artisan wines created by a passion for old vineyards and special sites. The Artisan winery allows us to free our spirits and make wines as natural as possible and as true to nature as we can.
In the Vineyard
Chenin blanc is not only widely recognised as a groundbreaking grape for South Africa, but also for the ArtiSons – producing a Chenin Blanc from the 1964 old bush vines planted to decomposed granite in the Bottelary hills were a ticking time bomb, and the result from these dryland vineyards is The Mothership.
Vinification
Grapes are picked between 22 and 24 Balling and allowed between 6 to 12 hours of skin contact. It is drained into foudre and concrete eggs for a slow wild yeast fermentation and blended after completion to concrete eggs for gross lees maturation of up to 12 months —100% Chenin Blanc from a 1964 Bottelary vineyard.
Residual sugar: 3.3g/L
pH: 3.18
Alcohol: 13,4%
TA 7.5g/L
