Description
THE OWL HOUSE VINEYARD
The vineyard is 14 years old and lives on a steep slope next to a white granite outcrop (a green zone where we have several Owl houses to promote breading). The soil is decomposed granite mixed with clay which ensures medium potential vegetative growth and retains water very well. This south facing slope is extremely exposed to the element and faces False Bay head on. South easterly winds regularly blow here, and the site gets early morning sun and early afternoon shade from the Granite outcrop. This all plays to the terroir of the vineyard and ensures concentrated slow ripened fruit of this unique vineyard.
THE OWL HOUSE SAUVIGNON BLANC WINEMAKING
We picked several times and in selected areas of the vineyards to ensure a complex array of aromas in the wine. A Minimalistic winemaking philosophy was followed with a 36-hour skin contact before pressing and a quick 24 hour settling without settling aids. Wild ferment started 2 days later with roughly 45 % in old French oak barrels and the rest in tank. Ferment lasted 21 days and the wines kept separately for 2 months on the gross lease, before blending the components in tank. Minimalistic fining and little sulphur additions were used just before bottling.
SOLITARY OWL HOUSE SAUVIGNON BLANC 2019 TASTING NOTES
The bouquet is dominated by exotic flavours of rose petal, pear and litchi characters. I also pick up complex herbal tones like fynbos and sage and a strong backdrop of granite or flint. On the pallet the wine over delivers with pistachio and a strong salinity (from the extremely long skin contact) with some red fig, peach and green mango characters. The minerality and nougat flavours carry the rounded and long-lasting palate that lingers forever.
PH: 3.51
TA: 5.81 g/l
RS: 1.26 g/l
ALC: 13.52 Vol%
VA: 0.44 g/l
FSO2: 32 mg/l
