#206 Arcangeli Estate Semillon 2017 (Alternative White Wine)

VIDEO CONTENTS INDEX:
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00:00 – What is a HanDrinksSolo Bizarro Wine?
00:52 – What is an alternative white wine?
02:36 – What are the technical requirements for an alternative white wine?
04:00 – What happens when you make wine “in an oxidative style”?
05:15 – What does the Vesta Semillon 2017 taste like?
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The Vesta Semillon 2017 won a WINEMAG Top Ten award in 2020, soon after its release.
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We were pretty excited therefore to get an allocation of that same award-winning vintage after it had enjoyed some cellar ageing. This wild textured savoury surly trip of a wine is just beginning to show hints of tertiary, with the very subtle honey notes making it all the more engaging.

As a cultivar, Semillon only has about 1000 hectares in the country, but it has been enjoying a purple patch recent amongst the wine nerd fraternity for two reasons, the number of incredible old vine blocks that we have managed to preserve in South Africa, and also the fact that it can produce some quite lovely results when a little skin contact is employed. Now the Vesta may not be from old vines, but there is a certainly skin contact winemaking, as well as some overtly oxidative techniques which renders an exquisitely complex little beastie.

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👃🏼 = Sea spray, green pepper, lemon grass, lime zest, white pepper, unripe nectarines, and even a gentle touch of honey.

👄 = The palate is a wild textured savoury surly trip of grapefruit pith, bitter seville oranges, sweeter lime marmalade.

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🔬Wine of origin Botrivier. 100% Semillon. Grapes are settled in tank before the juice is transferred to barrel for fermentation. One portion is fermented on skins for five days before being pressed and returned to barrels for the remainder of the fermentation.

💰R180.00 (as of June 2022)