The La Chataigne Vineyard, on the banks of the Franschhoek river, is one of South Africa’s oldest Sémillon blocks, consisting of bush vines planted as early as 1942.
Wine of Origin Franschhoek
| Winemaker: | Jean Smit |
| Cultivar: | 100% Sémillon |
| Origin: | Franschhoek |
Tasting notes:
The vanguard shows a delicate weave of Valencia orange, white peach, lemon blossom, and an earthy touch of terracotta clay. On the palate, this 2023 vintage shows the same remarkable concentration and texture that has become a hallmark of the wines from these world famous old vines. The delightfully chewy mouthfeel – an addictive mix of chalk powder and citrus pith – frames the vivid fruit elements of satsuma, candied lemon rind, and grapefruit.
Notes on the 2023 Vintage:
In many respects, Franschhoek’s 2023 vintage was quite similar to the earlier part of the Swartland’s harvest time. This involved some rain in December and heat in January. Of course, this is the perfect setting for disease pressure to skyrocket, but through meticulous disease control, our harvest team made certain that no damaged grapes snuck through. The final result of this effort was pure gold in the cellar (even if our yields were down). As mentioned, January was warm, so the vines had little choice but to get busy with the job of ripening. This was compounded by the fact that the Semillon is planted on extremely well-drained decomposed sandstone, so there was minimal moisture left in the topsoil to reduce terrestrial radiation. In the end, we picked our two vineyards on 7 February and 15 February, respectively.
Vineyards:
Our Semillon vineyards lie 22km due east of our Bottelary Chenin Blanc vineyard, on the edges of the Franschhoek Valley. These ancient bushvine vineyards are planted into alluvial soils (predominantly decomposed Table Mountain sandstone), with the oldest vineyard being planted in 1942. The second vineyard was planted in 1962 amongst the foothills of Franschhoek Mountain, with a more rocky subsoil. Roughly 15 percent of the vines have naturally morphed into the rare Semillon Gris mutation, which need to be carefully preserved by expert pruning.
Winemaking:
In the cellar, whole clusters were sorted and pressed with a delicate champagne-cycle, and the juice was then allowed to settle overnight. The following day, it was transferred to 1000L oval Austrian oak foudres for fermentation. As was the case with the Damascene Chenin Blancs, the lighter, more fluid lees elements were retained in the juice during fermentation, significantly increasing turbidity levels. No enzymes were added during pressing, and minimal sulphur was used throughout vinification. Only native yeasts were involved in the making of our wines, and most of the batches only saw sulphur for the first time just before bottling in early January. We deliberately prevented malolactic conversion to preserve the remarkable natural acidity in this wine. The final wine was matured “sur lie” for 11 months in 1000L oval Austrian oak vats at 6-8˚C.
Maturation:
This wine will be at its most expressive within three to five years of vintage but, with careful cellaring, will continue to evolve and improve for more than a decade. With extended bottle ageing, expect tertiary flavours to intensify, showing the true quality of old vine Semillon.
Technical:
Total production: 1536 x 750ml and 85 x 1.5L
Bottling date: 11 January 2024
Alc: 13.41 % Vol
pH: 3.32
TA: 5.5 g/L
RS: 2.4 g/L