Chenin Blanc
This range is named after Camilla, Craig and Carla’s daughter, who call her “Mielie”. These are the only blended wines in the TESTALONGA range – all other wines are single variety-single vineyard.
The Mielie range is an expression of the Swartland as a region made with the same philosophy and attention to detail as all the TESTALONGA wines.
The wine is a blend of three vineyards from the the Swartland. The koffieklip/granite soils near Malmesbury giving bush vines planted in 1981. Bush vines on the foothills of the Piketberg mountains in Moutons Hoek planted in 1961 on deep sandstone soils. The second vineyard planted in 1998 is close to Redelinghuys and 18km from the cold Atlantic ocean on the West Coast. The vineyard is also dry land farmed and gives a specific saltiness to the grapes. All organically and dry land farmed.
Hand harvested and whole bunch pressed. The wine is a blend of three vineyards which were co fermented in a 5000L concrete tank for 6 months then racked off its gross lees and placed back into the concrete tank. No yeast (or other) inoculation or additives apart from a small amount of SO2 shortly before bottling were added. The purity of fruit this year and the very soft edges makes this wine delicious in our opinion.
