
Moment of Silence 2015
Even though the wine is still a Wellington wine made from Chenin blanc, Chardonnay and Viognier, there are some stylistic changes to the 2015 vintage compared to previous vintages. From 2007 till 2013 we picked only from 3 sites. The 2015 is from 7 different sites - The aim to express true Wellington terroir. The StoryThis is the new Moment of Silence. Since 2007, the grapes for this wine were mainly from 3 sites. I decided that the only way to take the wine to the next level is to break the wine down into smaller sites, more sites - keeping the production and cultivars the same but pick from 7 sites instead of only 3. So 2014 was the transition year. I brought in only one new component, going from 3 to 4 sites - as a test and in 2015 I picked from 7 sites - revealing the true potential of WELLINGTON terroir.
The story:
At tastings I often get the question: "How do you conceptualise new wines?" Although normally a firm believer in strategic planning, when it comes to new wines, I plan NOT to plan. You can never force a wine, you just need to follow the road you're on. The journey normally starts with a friend, which typically leads to another friend, new areas and vineyards. Ultimately I end up with a wine that expresses the journey more than the actual destination, a combination of these people and their habitat. The perfect example of such a wine is the Moment of Silence. It's been a journey of epic proportion from the first vintage in 2007 until today - the release of the 2015 vintage.
It all started off with a friend, Jan de Villiers, who took me to Wellington. To be honest, I wasn't too keen on the area at first but by lunchtime that day I had completely changed my view. At the time I was not aware of it, but I was sitting at the original Hauptfleisch family table (more than 200 years old) and about to buy Chardonnay from a farm called Twyfeling (originally also owned by the Hauptfleisch family, 230 years ago). What makes this so significant is that my second name is Hauptfleisch, hence the H. in Pieter H. Walser. It refers to my mom's maiden surname. And the Hauptfleisch family that owned Twyfeling turned out to be my direct family, 7 generations ago... I only discovered this 2 years after that first day in Welllington - quite a confirmation don't you think?
Since 2007, the Moment of Silence has evolved into a area-specific white blend. The Chardonnay in the blend is still from Twyfeling and the Chenin now comes from a combination of very old vineyards from 4 different sites in the Bovlei. The Viognier is still from the original site we first picked in 2007, a small block on the foothills of Groenberg. All these varietals fermented spontaneously in the original OLD french oak barrels I started using in 2007. It was aged a year in barrel on the lees, blended and bottled.
Technical InformationVintage: 2015How to orderPlease note
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