Diemersdal Estate, the multi award-winning wine estate in Durbanville, has just released its coveted Sauvignon Blanc Reserve from the 2024 vintage, a wine of exceptional exuberance and expression of cool-climate Durbanville terroir.
Proprietor-winemaker Thys Louw, the sixth generation Louw to own and farm the Diemersdal Estate, says the 2024 vintage delivered exceptional quality Sauvignon Blanc, despite warm to hot conditions experienced in December and early January ahead of the harvest.
“Our standard 2024 Sauvignon Blanc, which was released earlier this year, was a portent of this being an excellent year for the variety,” says Louw. “The Diemersdal Reserve warrants the reputation of this vintage in terms of delivering splendid Sauvignon Blanc, with the wine showing purity and finesse together with a vivid array of classic Sauvignon Blanc flavours as well as in invigorating freshness.”
Thys says Diemersdal’s vineyards experienced a magnificent growing season due to the cool, mild conditions during the spring and early summer of 2023. “And then a splash of rain fell in December to freshen the vines and build-up water reserves. Once harvest got under way, temperatures remained mild to warm, the heat coming at just the right time for sugar-levels to hit optimal ripeness,” he says.
Diemersdal’s 2024 crop showed pin-point even-ripening. “I think this has a lot to do with our vines being unirrigated, dryland plants that have adapted to the vagaries of climate and unfailingly give us even, well-ripened grapes,” says Thys.
The Sauvignon Blanc Reserve is made from two vineyards on Diemersdal growing on different altitudes. One vineyard is 400m above sea-level – the highest on the farm – while the other is at 150m. Both are on decomposed gravel soils with a substantial clay component, providing the ideal degrees of drainage and water-retention. The influence of the nearby Atlantic Ocean, together with the soils and vineyards' aspects, continuously provides superb Sauvignon Blanc fruit from these two sites from which the Diemersdal Sauvignon Blanc Reserve is made.
"Vines live better and are more in-tune with their natural environment when they only have rainfall to rely on for water,” says Thys. “For us it is all about the vineyard, and it is the vineyard that makes the Diemersdal Sauvignon Blanc Reserve."
After picking, the grapes for the Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2024 were crushed and destemmed, with 24 hours skin-contact before pressing. The juice was given 36 hours to settle before racking and inoculating with selected yeast. After three weeks alcoholic fermentation, the wine was kept on the lees for five months, with weekly stirrings to allow the juice to draw complexity and mouthfeel.
“I like the way the classic flavours of nettles and fynbos are presented here from the outset, but then offset by expressive tropical notes and a fresh zip of citrus acidity,” says Louw. The tropical elements are this year more pronounced than in previous vintages due to the warm summer, but as per the reputation of Sauvignon Blanc, the wine has an inherent coolness for which the variety is renowned and universally popular.”
Diemersdal Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2024 is now available from Diemersdal's tasting room and online wine shop. To buy the wine online, click HERE.