Viognier 2022, De Grendel, Durbanville/Ceres Plateau

The Viognier flavour profile highlights the gentle and delicate floral fragrances such as honeysuckle and jasmine. In fact, Viognier is one for wine enthusiasts who love a sweet-smelling bouquet, but without the sugar. Its aroma is packed with Turkish apricots, ripe nectarine and juicy yellow cling peaches.

Winemaking at De Grendel is a careful balance between science and art. The meticulous care of the vineyards allows the grapes to express the environment in which they are grown and their distinctive varietal character. Careful harvesting and gentle handling in the cellar, combined with the winemaker’s passionate practice of their craft, carry the wines throughout the journey from fruit into wine. The state of the art winery is respectful of the age-old traditions of winemaking yet firmly and uncompromisingly modern in technological advancements, a perfect marriage of old and new.

High up on the western slope of the Tygerberg, roughly 200 metres above sea level, 7 kilometres from and in sight of the Atlantic Ocean, the Viognier vines are nourished by well-drained blue, broken shale soil with areas of gravel and sublayers of clay. Utilising the VSP trellis system, a typical harvest produces 7-8 tons per hectare. Viognier berries begin to shrivel towards ripeness, a unique variety characteristic that necessitates careful sampling and tasting before harvest to ensure balance and complexity of flavour is achieved in the wine. Handpicked bunches are destalked and crushed, with the juice settling before inoculation. The majority of the juice is fermented in stainless steel tanks in order to maintain its fresh fruity characteristics, while the remaining 30% is fermented and then aged for 90 days in Romanian oak barrels for a creamier, complementary complexity before blending back into the tank portion. This is followed by protein stabilisation, cold stabilisation and bottling.