A Cape white blend, rather than using Chenin as the central variety, John Seccombe has lead with Roussanne, incorporating Chardonnay and Semillon. Grapes were sourced from vineyards in theOverberg, Franschhoek, Voor-Paardeberg and Stellenbosch.The South African allocation sold out in two weeks of being launched, wasn’t long before the jokes about the wine being as ‘rare as rocking horse shit’ came into existence. Lot going on aromatically in this wine, initial blossom, peach and burnt sugar give way to more exotic wax, rosemary, caraway and seashore notes. Layered and complex, evolves beautifully in glass. The palate is fine, structured and rich with flavours of quince and tea-leaf that settle into a long finish.
Wine Features
The grapes were whole bunch pressed in an old Vaslin press, which ensures an oxidative pressing, with no treatments or additions. The juice was then racked off the heavy solids and transferred to old French oak barrels ranging in size from 225 litres to 600 litres. Fermentation occurred naturally in barrel and the wines were then allowed to undergo spontaneous malolactic fermentation. Sulphur dioxide was first added in August following the vintage when the wines had time to settle. The Rocking Horse spent 10 months on its fine lees after fermentation, prior to blending and bottling.
