AA Badenhorst Sout van die Aarde Palomino 2015

Vineyards and vines: The West Coast of South Africa is the wilder part of the country. 150km north of our winery you will find this vineyard on the farm Brakkuil. The old vines stand high out of the sandy top-soils, their roots go deep into the limestone bedrock. The salty sea winds and mists drench their leaves, making this a truly unique site.

Grapes: Palomino or Fransdruif 100%

Vinification: Very straightforward winemaking approach – grapes pressed whole bunch, juice run off into older vats for fermentation.

Maturation: This wine spent 11 months in a 500l cask before it was bottled with a small sulphur addition.

Analysis Alcohol 12.81 vol% Residual Sugar 2.4 g/L pH 3.48 Total Acidity (Tartaric) 5.21g/L Total sulphur 70ppm

Palomino, as we all well know, was used mainly for the production of sherry and sherry-styled wines in South Africa. Very few of these vineyards remain and this Brakkuil vineyard is one of them. A rare bottling, a once-off occurrence for us, of this varietal shows the vineyard and varietal very well. The wine is pure, delicate, vinous and savoury/salty to the taste. 600 bottles produced