HARVEST SUMMARY BY WINEMAKER, JUSTIN VAN WYK
The 2022 vintage was yet another fantastic one for the white varieties at Constantia Glen, owing mainly to a cool growing season that resulted in our harvest kicking off extremely late, on 28 February 2022. The flavours of the Sauvignon Blanc grapes at the time of picking were concentrated and intense; and backed up with lovely acidity and freshness. A cool growing season such as this results in slow and even ripening of the grapes, which is beneficial to the development of complex flavour precursors. Thanks to well established
vineyards with excellent root systems, the dryland vineyards on the estate ripened the fruit with ease and the vintage has delivered elegant and refined white wines with great richness, texture, and delicious, mouth-coating acidity. The harvest of Sauvignon Blanc continued for 3 weeks from 28 February until 17 March 2022, with each vineyard block hand-harvested once it had achieved optimal ripeness. The white grape harvest came to a close on 18 March 2022 when the Sémillon (making up only 2% of this wine) was picked and processed into the winery.
VINIFICATION
The grapes for this classically styled, Constantia Sauvignon blanc are all grown on the estate and hand-harvested in the early hours of the morning. After a few hours of cooling in a cold room, the grapes are destemmed and crushed, and then left for anything from 2 to 18 hours for the juice to soak on the grape skins before being separated and pressed. Post-settling, the clean juice is fermented in stainless-steel tanks at a constant cool temperature of 15 degrees Celsius. The wine was then matured on the lees for 5 months in the stainless-steel tanks, before it was stabilised and bottled on 17 August 2022.