The Wine Advocate | RP 90
Published: Jun 9, 2022

Fresh, clean and herbaceous with a citrus-driven nose, the 2020 Barrel Fermented Sauvignon Blanc is ripe with subtle oak spices. Medium-bodied in the mouth, flavors of candied lime and lemon drop sway with notions of pineapple and peach before soft green herbs make their mark. The wine concludes with a tight, ripe and food-friendly finish with a lingering notion of cardamom madeleines. 

Winemaker

Barrel fermentation and extended lees contact contribute to this full bodied, elegant and well balanced wine.
Floral notes of passion flower and fynbos, granadilla, guava, gooseberry and green fig on the palate along with an underlying minerality which gives this unique terroir driven wine its signature.

Wine Made in the Soil
30% of this wine?s grapes comes from Lismore?s Greyton vineyards which are planted on East/Southeast facing slopes at 320 metres in the foothills of the Sonderend Mountain Range. The soils are deep decomposed shale. The other 70% comes donated fruit across the Western Cape, from vineyards which includes grapes from Helderberg, facing the cool False bay Atlantic ocean, as well as cool climate vineyards in Elgin. Sauvignon Blanc is a variety that expresses a very distinct and specific sense of place or "terroir". The distinct minerality of this Sauvignon Blanc is a clear indication of the cool climate in which it is grown.

Winemakers' Notes
I love barrel fermented Sauvignon Blanc. The wine is approached and made in an ?oxidative" style. Older 600 litre barrels were used for the fermentation and maturation bringing forward richness, intense fruit and complexity. 15% of the production was fermented in 600 litre egg shape tanks. In both the barrels and the eggs, extended less contact contribute further to the rounder mouth feel and creaminess of this elegantly textured wine. As with all Lismore wines, balance is the key. The bracing acidity that is customary in new world Sauvignons has been brought into balance with a carefully chosen pick date and the barrel and egg fermentation and maturation. A full bodied, balanced wine was the goal.
This wine is an extraordinary accompaniment to fine cuisine with some of the world?s top chefs choosing.