Thought Process behind Auslese<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We noticed that Rkatsiteli from the Bolnisi terroir was often produced to a high quality wine with full skin contact – often expressing pleasant mellow flavours and a balance of acidity without so many of the tannins that can often be found in full-skin Rkatsiteli from various terroirs in Kakheti. We wondered if it would be possible to make a cleaner, brighter full-skin contact wine and struck upon using the German methodology of an Auslese for this wine. “Etwas Auszulesen” literally means selecting – so an Auslese is usually a Qualit\u00e4tspr\u00e4dikat (quality designation) that defines hand selection of the best grapes, different to a Beerenauslese which means that the grapes are deliberately aged on the vine to the maximum possible sweetness, we didn’t have the luxury to do that in 2023 but naturally we want to try this at some point too… anyway, back to our Auslese – we took the best bunches of grapes that we had that were to be processed either as direct press or carbonic maceration and then we painstakingly selected the best berries (this took 3 of us from the afternoon way past dusk) then lightly crushed the individual grapes without stems and fermented on the skins for 30 days. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brief Tasting Notes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After fermentation we basket-pressed the must and laid the wine to rest in glass (ideal for a clean interpretation of this style) – what results is a wine reminiscent of a Gew\u00fcrztraminer that\u2019s been at a party in a flower meadow, think bees, honey and flowers dancing happily at the dawn, a hint of the summer rain and ripe apricots getting down for a boogie on your palate. Given the highly labour-intensive method of production we elected to keep this experiment super-focused for 2023 – we’re pleased to note that feedback from wine-professionals and professional-drinkers alike has been such that we will definitely increase production in 2024 to make this wine more available in the places that appreciate such wines. It goes without saying that fermentation was spontaneous on native yeasts and also that zero sulphites were used in the production process. The label is part of our new square-label limited edition series that nods to the simple graphic labels I remember from my parents table in the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Limited<\/strong> Availablity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n