2019 CRAVEN "KARIBIB VINEYARD" CHENIN BLANC
2019 CRAVEN "KARIBIB VINEYARD" STELLENBOSCH CHENIN BLANC, SOUTH AFRICA. 100% Chenin Blanc.
It has a clean, quite pure bouquet of well-defined stone fruit, melted wax and dandelion scents. The palate is well balanced, with a saline entry and perfectly judged acidity. I like the focus here, as well as the waxy texture toward a finish that lingers in the mouth. Superb.
Chenin Blanc is a variety that Mick has always wanted to work with but was waiting for the right vineyard to land in his lap. Toward the end of 2015, Mick came across the perfect site in the Polkadraai Hills, called the Karibib Vineyard. Jozua Joubert planted the vineyard in 1982 on an east-facing block and has been working with the Cravens to bring it back to a more ‘natural’ state. Initially trained on a single wire, it has been ‘let go’ over time and now grows more like a bush vine.
Mick refers to it as a “faux bush vine” vineyard. The vineyard sits in a unique pocket is characterized by hilly topography and subsequently varying elevations, providing sites on elevations from 200 to 1,300 feet above sea level. Aside from the differences in elevation, the layered soils vary from granite-based on the higher elevations to the lighter, more sandy soils in lower lying areas.
The grapes are hand-picked and immediately whole-bunch pressed to neutral 500L barrels, where the juice is left to ferment naturally with full solids. It completed malolactic fermentation and is then left on the lees for approximately four months before a single racking. In total it spent nine months in barrel before bottling. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered, with nothing added during the winemaking process apart from a dash of sulfur.
About: Craven Wines is a winemaking collaboration between husband-and-wife team Mick and Jeanine Craven. Mick is an Aussie currently working as lead winemaker at Mulderbosch during the day; Jeanine is South African, and they met in California dragging hoses in Sonoma for harvest in 2007. After both having taken to the textbooks at their respective universities, they decided to hit the road, see lots of things, work in lots of places and try and learn as much as possible from this massive wine world. After traveling across the world together for four years and learning about wines in Australia, Europe, the States and South America, the couple returned to South Africa in late 2011. They feel Stellenbosch has such an amazing array of sites and terroir, and that it is perfect for what they want to do, which is making site-specific, honest wines. (Importer)
It has a clean, quite pure bouquet of well-defined stone fruit, melted wax and dandelion scents. The palate is well balanced, with a saline entry and perfectly judged acidity. I like the focus here, as well as the waxy texture toward a finish that lingers in the mouth. Superb.
Chenin Blanc is a variety that Mick has always wanted to work with but was waiting for the right vineyard to land in his lap. Toward the end of 2015, Mick came across the perfect site in the Polkadraai Hills, called the Karibib Vineyard. Jozua Joubert planted the vineyard in 1982 on an east-facing block and has been working with the Cravens to bring it back to a more ‘natural’ state. Initially trained on a single wire, it has been ‘let go’ over time and now grows more like a bush vine.
Mick refers to it as a “faux bush vine” vineyard. The vineyard sits in a unique pocket is characterized by hilly topography and subsequently varying elevations, providing sites on elevations from 200 to 1,300 feet above sea level. Aside from the differences in elevation, the layered soils vary from granite-based on the higher elevations to the lighter, more sandy soils in lower lying areas.
The grapes are hand-picked and immediately whole-bunch pressed to neutral 500L barrels, where the juice is left to ferment naturally with full solids. It completed malolactic fermentation and is then left on the lees for approximately four months before a single racking. In total it spent nine months in barrel before bottling. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered, with nothing added during the winemaking process apart from a dash of sulfur.
About: Craven Wines is a winemaking collaboration between husband-and-wife team Mick and Jeanine Craven. Mick is an Aussie currently working as lead winemaker at Mulderbosch during the day; Jeanine is South African, and they met in California dragging hoses in Sonoma for harvest in 2007. After both having taken to the textbooks at their respective universities, they decided to hit the road, see lots of things, work in lots of places and try and learn as much as possible from this massive wine world. After traveling across the world together for four years and learning about wines in Australia, Europe, the States and South America, the couple returned to South Africa in late 2011. They feel Stellenbosch has such an amazing array of sites and terroir, and that it is perfect for what they want to do, which is making site-specific, honest wines. (Importer)
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Out of stock
SKU
51-I-CRAVCB
$31.99