Sauvignon Blanc

Pair with goats’ cheese, oysters, artichoke and pesto gnocchi.

Situated in the “Golden Triangle” of wine growing Eikendal vineyards flourish in a mountain and maritime microclimate ideal for the production of quality wine. Since 1981 the 76 hectare wine farm has been under the ownership of the Saager family from Zurich Switzerland. The Swiss owners recognised the great potential of the area and wasted no time in modernising the existing vineyards and establishing the cellar.

All of the grapes are meticulously sourced from a site-specific block in the Elgin Valley. Elgin offers a very cool climate at an altitude of 350m above sea level, which is optimal for premium Sauvignon Blanc production. We focus on two different clones of Sauvignon Blanc which offers a desired blend of fruit-driven flavours, combined with more earthy asparagus and fig flavours. Canopy manipulations range from extreme leaf removal to minimal intervention to produce these specific flavours. Vine spacing is 2.4m x 1.2m and grown without any irrigation.

The grapes were hand-picked into 18kg lug boxes and emptied in to fruit bins, which have some extra oxygen scavenging tannins at the bottom. In order to preserve the freshness of the grapes and juice on the journey from Elgin to our cellar we added sulphur on to the full bins. At the cellar dry ice was added, and the grapes were destemmed, crushed and went into the skeier. The juice underwent 4 hours of skin contact before it was racked and pressed to settle in the tank. Delicate juice extraction with a juice recovery of 670L per ton. Alcoholic fermentation took place in a combination of stainless steel tanks, concrete eggs and plastic eggs, and was batonnaged every 2 weeks for 2 months before bottling.