Nederburg Heritage Heroes The Young Airhawk, Western Cape

Description

Nederburg Heritage Heroes The Young Airhawk pays tribute to Johann Graue’s son Arnold. Both father and son has a major impact on the South African wine industry and helped improve wine-making in South Africa in General. Johann Graue is honoured with his own wine, Nederburg Heritage Heroes The Brew Master, the Nederburg Young Airhawk remembers Arnold Graue who died tragically young, at the age of 29, in a light aircraft crash.

Nederburg has a long wine-making history stretching back over 200 years to 1791 when Phillipus Bernadus Wolvaart was granted ownership of 49 hectares of land, in what is now Paarl, by the Dutch East India Company. He called his new property Nederburgh and immediately set about clearing land and planting vines. By 1808 he has planted over 63,000 vines laying the foundations for what was to become the wine company we know today. Nederburg has changed hands many times through the years but is now owned by the large wine and spirit company, Distell. Romanian-born Razvan Macici was appointed cellarmaster in 2001 and Nederburg has had something of a resurgence under his direction.

Nederburg Heritage Heroes The Young Airhawk is 100% barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes are sourced from cool climate vineyards in Elim, Darling and Durbanville. Grapes are hand-harvested, detemmed and then the juice is fermented in a combination of second- and third-fill 228 and 300 litre barrels. The wine is then aged on its lees for 10 months, with lees-stirring to increase its creamy character and complexity.