THE ALIAS SAUVIGNON BLANC 2008

The grapes for this wine come from a special part of a vineyard very close to the winery, owned and managed by Mike and Cheryl Wadworth. It also happens to be where they live so there are no short-cuts in terms of the attention to detail applied to this block.

After harvesting and getting the juice in the winery, we felt that the flavours and structure showed something special so we fermented the wine solely with native yeasts from the vineyard in tank. This served to retain the 'wild' characters of the yeast. Right at the end of ferment we ran it to French oak barriques where it sat on its yeast lees until we felt the balance was right.

The eventual wine is a rich, complex white wine that is not restrained by a particular mindset. It has fruit and weight, and a long finish. A slightly twisted Sauvignon, you can see that it is what it is, but it is not exactly what you expect.

This is a style that we love at the winery, a wine that sits in the shadows, not obviously one thing or another. Something that defies pigeon-holing, a wine style going under another name.

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The Alias Sauvignon Blanc 2008