New Dawn Liora Sauvignon Blanc 2025 (No.486)

by | Aug 3, 2026 | One minute waffles | 0 comments

Back

#486 New Dawn Liora Sauvignon Blanc 2025

Video coming soon. The film for this bottle is still in production. Everything else is already here — the story, the notes and the numbers — and the video drops into this spot the moment it goes live.

New Dawn Liora Sauvignon Blanc 2025 bottle
Get wine delivered to your door

COMING SOON ON HANtv

=====================

The chapter index appears here the moment the episode is published.
=====================
Two phrases in wine sound almost identical and behave nothing alike: whole-bunch fermentation and whole-bunch pressing. The first is a red-wine business, stems and all thrown into the fermenter for texture, perfume and a spicy little personality crisis. The second is a white and sparkling matter entirely: squeezing juice out of grapes while they are still attached to their bunches, before fermentation has had its first coffee.

The difference is not trivia. Less skin disruption means fewer phenolics, less grip, less bitterness. And with Sauvignon Blanc, where the whole trade is currently chasing more skin contact, more cold soak and more extraction, choosing to press straight away is a quietly contrarian act.

Which brings us to Rudger van Wyk, a former competitive swimmer who spent his teens staring at a black line on the bottom of a pool before someone walked him into a co-op cellar. His New Dawn Liora — Hebrew for my light — is bottled as Wine of Origin Cape Town and built the old-school Chardonnay way: press early, stir the lees, a touch of oak, and let restraint do the talking.

But of course, if you have yet to sign up for your Monthly HanDrinksSolo Wine Subscription then you’ll have to hunt this wine down in your own time. But until then, here are my tasting notes and some technical specs:
—

TASTING NOTES

Aromas: A gentle nose of lemongrass, lemon curd and butterscotch toffee, cut with a lovely contrasting flick of green pepper freshness that already hints at the savouriness to follow. Reserved rather than explosive, and deliberately so: skip the skin soak, press the whole bunches straight away, and fewer aromatic phenols ever make it into the juice.

—

Palate: Light and lithe. It opens on bright, bittersweet Seville orange mixed with a sweeter orange barley-candy note — that will be the touch of new oak handing over a pleasant boiled-sweet lift. Then the lemongrass herbal line comes back in and chops the sweetness up, and a really juicy bitter-grapefruit acidity runs down either side of the palate. The finish returns to that mouthwatering sour-orange-candy thing, and lingers beautifully.

—

TECHNICAL SPECS

Wine of Origin Cape Town — the label that gathers Durbanville, Constantia, Philadelphia and Hout Bay under one cold-ocean umbrella. Whole-bunch pressed with no cold maceration, then built up the old-fashioned Chardonnay way with regular lees stirring and a touch of oak. A stack of counter-trend decisions, and you can taste every one of them.
Full technical specs to follow from the cellar.
Submit your review
1
2
3
4
5
Submit
     
Cancel

Create your own review

Sauvignon Blanc for people who think they are over it

#462 DuToitskloof Old Vine Sauvignon Blanc

#476 Regna Loca Old Vine Semillon

#466 Anysbos Disdit White Blend