Groenekloof Sauvignon Blanc

Fresh seafood and summer salads.

In 1984 Neil Ellis sourced grapes from vineyards not of his own and produced wine in rented cellar space. These grapes were sourced in the Stellenbosch district and meant a lot of nosing around the restrictive quota system prevalent at the time. His vision the pursuit of quality extended out of the cellar and into the vineyards where varieties would excel and best express a particular style of wine reflective of their environment. Today the experience and knowledge of the past are applied to modern techniques and technologies for a new generation of winemaking. “Our vision remains to make distinctive refined wines that are expressive of their terrain and rank amongst South Africa’s finest. A pursuit of quality nothing less.” Neil Ellis

Groenekloof is situated near Darling on the West Coast and consists of a series of hills running parallel to the ocean. These bush vines are low-yielding vineyards with no supplementary irrigation. The soil consists of predominantly decomposed granite and clay with good water-retention capacities. Harvest commenced on the 2nd of February and carried through to the 16th of February. Grapes were harvested between 21.5 and 23°B with a total acid of 8.0- 9.5g/l and a pH of 3.3-3.4.

The juice was cleaned by means of flotation after it was racked and inoculated to ferment at low temperatures. 10% of the wine was Spontaneous fermented and matured in barrel. The wine was left on the lees for 5 months before blending and bottling.