Wine Advisor
Alheit Vineyards, Hemelrand Vine Garden 2019
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Description
Tasting notes
Reviewed by: Neal Martin
The 2019 Hemelrand Vine Garden was picked early in the morning and fermented over two months (nine for the Roussanne). It has a very well-defined bouquet of red apple, fresh pear, yellow flower and strawberry scents, plus hints of chamomile in the background. The palate is well balanced with crisp acidity and wonderful mineralité on the finish; there’s something Alsace-like about this cuvée. One of Alheit’s more cerebral wines of the vintage.
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.
