Wine Advisor
Alheit Vineyards, Hemelrand Vine Garden 2018
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2018 Hemelrand Vine Garden is whole-cluster-pressed and matured in oak and foudres. It has a very seductive bouquet of honeysuckle, passion fruit and hints of beeswax that gain intensity with aeration. The palate is well balanced with a saline opening, plus a fine bead of acidity. There is a light saline lick toward the finish that becomes nuttier with aeration, although this does not quite deliver the complexity of Alheit’s best Chenin Blancs. Still, it is a lovely white blend that should age with style.
About the Producer
In our vineyards much attention is paid to the farming, with an emphasis on careful pruning and suckering, diligent canopy work, and hand hoeing. We like to encourage healthy soil by cover cropping, mulching, and manuring. All our grapes are handpicked into small lug boxes and transported with care by us to our winery. In the cellar we use gentle whole cluster pressing, hardly settling (we like very cloudy raw juice), no additions to the raw juice, wild fermentation in either cement eggs, clay pots, foudres, or old barrels (various sizes). The wine is kept on lees for around twelve months, then rested in tank without fining for a further four months prior to bottling.
