Professor Kukurowitz 2012

A 100% Chenin from a 49-year old block of grapes on Groenberg, Wellington, with an awesome story to back it up.

The Story:

On one of the farms I buy grapes from, there is a block everyone refers to as Professor Kukurowitz. The story is told that more than 50 years ago a professor of Stellenbosch University, Prof Kukurowitz, did clonal selection with Chenin blanc. He selected some plant material for production and certain ones for quality. He planted the vines in the Stellenbosch clonal garden and from there selected the best and planted small vineyards on selected farms to do the trials. He planted one of those blocks on a farm of a friend of mine and died before he could tell anyone what he planted. It looks/tastes like Chenin blanc, but we are not sure what clone these vines comes from.

For the past 49 years this specific block, together with some others, were going to a large cooperative winery; there are therefore no track record of it's quality. So in 2012 I decided to produce and bottle only 2 barrels of 100% Professor Kukurowitz. It is a solid wine, with great fruit and a creamy silky oakyness. It fermented and aged in barrel for 11 months.