2022 Craven Pinot Gris, Stellenbosch, South Africa

ABOUT THIS WINE

In the cellar, it is fermented like a red wine on the skins. The fruit was hand-picked around 21.5 brix in early February and destemmed but left whole berry. Fermentation occurred naturally on the skins in open top fermenters with light pumpovers and gentle punchdowns throughout fermentation. Due to severe drought conditions in 2018, the skins were quite tannic. So Mick only left the juice on skins for 6 days this year to keep the tannins in check. After six days, the free run was racked off and the skins were gently pressed to barrel. Following eight months in old French oak tonneau the wine received one racking to tank with no additions throughout the lifecycle other than a small amount of SO2. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

ABOUT THIS PRODUCER

Craven Wines is a winemaking collaboration between husband-and-wife team Mick and Jeanine Craven. Mick is an Aussie currently working as lead winemaker at Mulderbosch during the day; Jeanine is South African, and they met in California 'dragging hoses' in Sonoma for harvest in 2007. After both having taken to the text books at their respective universities, they decided to hit the road, see lots of things, work in lots of places and try and learn as much as possible from this massive wine world. After travelling across the world together for four years and learning about wines in Australia, Europe, the States and South America, the couple returned to South Africa in late 2011. They feel Stellenbosch has such an amazing array of sites and terroir, and that it is perfect for what they want to do, which is making site-specific, honest wines.