Sauvignon Blanc

Up at the “crack of dawn” isn't quite right. At 3.30 am there is no crack but as I drove off at 5 am there was a hint of light in the east. But only a hint.

Today was Sauvignon Blanc day. A long chat with the vineyard manager about what was happening with the vintage and the vineyard and at home then off to pick. Only took an hour as SB bunches are really good to pick. Sometimes coming off with just a light tug.
 

Sav Blanc on the right

Brix 21.2 (perfect) pH 3.24 (pretty good and no adjustment made) weighed in at 55KG (good)

Some people just do the same thing every year because it works, no adventurism or risk taking.



Neatly pruned and tucked in SB

But not here on HHF we love to sail close to the wind and seek new frontiers. No not bungy jumping or parachuting or other adrenaline rushes. Our risk taking is to try the untried in wine making. At least untried by us.

Perfect little bunches

Firstly the decision was to press full bunches i.e. stems and all – no de-stemming. Why? A couple of reasons. Firstly the stems act as coarse matting to help the juice run out. Secondly, because there few shattered berries there is less pulpy material. And thirdly it means you don't have to stand out in the afternoon sun with the crusher/de-stemmer putting through grapes. Then of course there is no cleaning up afterwards. Beautiful.

The next adventure is to make three types of SB. S1 is the purest free run juice. S2 is pressed juice and has a little skin contact. S3 will be the heavy pressing, lots of skin contact and just to make it even more interesting some French oak dust will be added to simulate barrel fermentation.