In 2012, Richard Kershaw MW, established Richard Kershaw Wines to create prototype wines from selected clones, site-specific, growing in a cold climate, from noble grapes, which produce world-class wines. South Africa's coolest wine-growing region, the Elgin Valley, is ideal as it benefits from higher altitude, proximity to the ocean with alternating cloud cover, high cold masses, and a diurnal range, allowing Chardonnay, Syrah and more recently Pinot Noir grapes to capture the identity of the terroir of the place.
-
Appealing floral characteristics are highlighted by purity, depth of concentration, and freshness framed by delicate powdered tannins, but softened by a juicy texture and aromas of black cherry, pomegranate, rose petal, and blackberry.
Hand harvested, transferring the clean fruit to open vats. Grapes undergo 3 days of maceration before spontaneous fermentation begins. Mild leaching where the juice flows daily by gravity; grapes are left with skins on for 10 - 12 days. The skins are then removed, and the wine is transferred by gravity to the barrel where malolactic fermentation takes place, followed by light sulphurization and 10 - 11 months in the barrel. During this stay, each barrel is tasted every 6 weeks, where detailed scores & notes are recorded to better understand future clone, soil, and barrel selection. Light filtration prior to bottling, without any further intervention.
-
Barrels: A small number of barrels were selected, all from Burgundy, only French oak. Importantly, each clone and soil type was micro-wined as a separate batch. Each lot used an algorithm set up to keep data on which barrels performed best and how many new and how many used barrels were used. Overall, the average in 2018 was 20,6% new oak barrels. 73,8% of 228-litre, 16,1% of 500-litre and 10,1% egg tanks.