The KEERMONT FLEURFONTEIN (‘flower fountain’) derives its name from a beautiful spring on the farm. The Sauvignon blanc vineyard from which grapes are sourced for this wine lies just below this spring. We use a distinctive technique to produce raisins in the vineyard which give the Fleurfontein its concentration and sweetness.

Raisins are produced by using a pair of pliers to pinch the stem of the bunches while they ripen on the vine. This pinching action stops the translocation of fluids into and out of the grapes, which then stops them from becoming over ripe. We do this when the grapes are at optimal ripeness in order to concentrate the juice with the perfect sugar to acid balance. The grapes dry out naturally during the warm summer and are harvested a few weeks later. The syrupy juice is squeezed from them with a hard pressing process. This is slowly fermented by indigenous yeast in Hungarian and French oak barrels and then matures in these barrels for about 15 months.

Total production for this bottling was seven barrels yielding 2566 bottles. All grapes used in producing this wine were grown on Keermont Vineyards. Processing, maturation, and bottling were carried out by hand in our cellar.

TASTING NOTE

Yellow gold in colour, the Fleurfontein 2022 exudes aromas of dried apricot, litchi, and pineapple with hints of almond, vanilla and sweet spice. The palate is full and creamy with concentrated flavours of dried fruit, honey vanilla biscuit and a touch of grassy freshness. A central core of acidity gives the wine a long, complex, caramel finish. Drink now through to 2035.

VINTAGE REPORT

2022 will go down as a very successful and plentiful vintage at Keermont. On paper it was a vintage of two halves. The first half of the season was very cool and wet. We recorded the wettest winter since starting to farm Keermont Vineyards in 2005! These conditions led to good growth in the early season, but also increased disease pressure. We had to work hard to keep up with the strong growth in order to keep all the vines trimmed and tucked in to ripen the crop ideally. By Christmas time we could see that we had a lovely looking crop of grapes ripening on the healthy green vines.

After Christmas the weather changed completely and we had a hot and dry run into harvest. The grapes, which we thought were going to be harvested late, ripened quickly under healthy conditions. Harvest started on 1 February which is normal for us. The vineyards consistently delivered good yields and the winery tanks filled up quickly. We pressed our biggest vintage ever in the Keermont Winery: just over 90 tonnes of healthy, estate grown fruit!

Alc: 10.5 %
pH: 3.72
TA: 6.6 g/L
RS: 293.8 g/L
TSO2: 184 mg/L
VA: 1.60 g/L