Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc from Stellenbosch a ‘World No. 1’
THE WINE is “herbaceous” and a whole lot more according to the judges who liked it so much that a trophy was awarded to the producers Villiera for best wooded Sauvignon Blanc on show – the international Concours Mondial du Sauvignon 2023, a competition based in Brussels, with the tasting panels gathered in Franschhoek (the first time outside Europe in the history of the show), and the awards presented at ProWein (trade fair) in Düsseldorf. For more about the competition, click here.
Back in 2016, the Grier family decided to change the style of their Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc to give it a greater point of difference relative to their ‘regular’ Sauvignon. “We believe the intensity of fruit allows it to benefit from barrel treatment,” says winemaker Alexander Grier. The change has put the wine back on the radar following decades as an unwooded wine that earned top ratings not that long ago. And there’s still some tweaking from vintage to vintage – in 2021 the wine spent time in amphora and in barrels that had mostly been used before, in 2022 amphora were not involved and the barrels were mostly new.
VILLIERA BUSH VINE SAUVIGNON BLANC 2022
WO Stellenbosch. A single vineyard on the Villiera farm, planted in 1984 and unirrigated – half the block on Richter 110 rootstock, which contributes gooseberry notes to the wine, and half on Ramsey rootstock, which contributes green fig notes. The grapes were hand-picked and -sorted in the morning – two separate pickings due to the different rootstocks. 24-hour skin contact after destalking and crushing before pressing and racking into 300L and 500L barrels. Spontaneous fermentation in French oak, 80% new. Malolactic fermentation avoided. Weekly batonnage (stirring of the sediment). Wine kept in barrel for six months before stabilisation and bottling. Cork closure.
Alc 13 | RS 6.4 | TA 6.9 | pH 3.3
Winemaker Alexander Grier’s Tasting Notes: Complex wine… Hints of green pepper and yellow fruit with some oak spice. “This wine really needs time in the bottle… It’s starting to open up nicely now but will benefit from more time in the bottle and age well.” Maturation potential: Up to five years.
Approximate retail price: R323pb (‘sold out’ ex-cellar)
Outstanding achievement!! [by Villiera with their Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc 2022 at Concours Mondial du Sauvignon 2023]