Releasing SEELUG 2023
As the year was drawing to a close, Mr. Koekemoer from the dry lands up North generated a heavy, hefty, dusty cough. A feeling somewhat between drowning in a half pint of dirty dishwater and a lightweight toddler jumping on his chest. Never-ending drawn-out days with little vision nor ending.
He saddled up and cycled down a little, windy path to the local town physician - exhibiting a face filled with sorrow and despair for everyone to observe.
What on earth could be wrong? And then... the epiphany struck! Insight which could only be affixed to fine, golden wisdom from ancient Egypt - it hit him as hard as that eggy pan his wife threw him with the day before.
His lungs were in dire need of fine, delicate Sea-Air!
You might wonder what Mr Koekemoer’s conundrum has to do with wine?
Today is the release of Seelug Chardonnay 2023.
Seelug is a fresh, elegantly oaked, limey and delicious Chardonnay - and, in contrast to my story, more to the serious side of things.
The story of Seelug.
I like Chardonnay fermented in oak, BUT if you make use of oak, you need to use the very best you can lay your hands(cash) on. The barrels for this wine were specially curated by Italian cooper Peter Mittelberger. He comes to my winery once a year to taste our wines. The goal is to equip him and his team with as much knowledge as possible to enable them to produce a barrel specifically for this wine. My brief to them is as follows: I want pure wood on wine. No prominent woody toasty notes - integration, subtle - absorbed into the foundation of the wine. Elegance which amplifies fruit, freshness and purity.
(What makes the Seelug 2023 release special, is that I was at the cooperage in Italy when my barrels for the 2023 vintage were made [some of you might recall an earlier newsletter about wood on wine]. A unique experience indeed.)
To understand the story of this wine, I need to explain some relevant terminologies:
- Off-shore wind - air movement off-the-shore, into-the-ocean.
- On-shore wind - air movement from-the-ocean, onto-the-shore.
- Chop/wit perdjies/white horses - Little waves produced by long distance air movement over large expanses of open ocean surfaces.
- Sampling - The picking of random grape berries from a vineyard in order to get a representation sample in order to determine ripeness.
- Seelug - Sea Air.
One hot day, during the harvest of ’22, I was sampling a little (as yet) un-named Chardonnay vineyard which a good friend had told me about. Situated on the lower slopes of the Helderberg, it overlooks False Bay. Glancing over towards the ocean that day, I could clearly see that the off-shore wind was blowing. This was good news to the Strand local I am, as the elusive off-shore wind grooms the waves, making them perfect for my local surf spot. I made a mental note to get a move-on with my sampling, no time to lose.
But 20 minutes later, as I once again raised my head from my berry-picking, grape-squashing exercise, I glanced over the bay. D’oh! (as Homer Simpson would say) - the wind had turned onshore. I could clearly see the tell-tale "wit perdjies" on the horizon heading towards shore. In a few minutes the perfectly groomed waves would be destroyed.
Deflated, I carried on with the task at hand.
Then, another 20 minutes later it hit me - SEELUG! It suddenly felt like someone was spraying my sun-baked face with a cool, misty oyster extract - a fragrance of fresh, salty, damp bamboo. That’s when I realized: whilst the onshore might be wrecking waves, it simultaneously pushes the hot air inland and hugs every Chardonnay plant in that vineyard with a fragranced coolness which not many vines ever experience.
That day was the birth of Seelug - a fresh, elegantly oaked, limey and delicious Chardonnay.