Testalonga I Am The Ninja 2023

Serious but playful. Kinda like Fridays at the office

Chenin Blanc

$59.00

Quantity

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Citrus Fruit, Floral, and Stone Fruit, Toasted

BODY: Medium -
DRYNESS: Dry
ACIDITY: Medium +
TANNIN: Light
ALCOHOL (%): Moderate (9-12%)

Origin: Coastal Region (Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, Swartland, Constantia & More), South Africa

Grape Varietals:

Chenin Blanc

Winemaking:
Natural, Biodynamic, and Organic
Petillant Naturel

Maturation: 7-12 Months Bottle Ageing

Awards:

WESTERN FOOD PAIRING
Bruschetta, smoked salmon appetisers, fried calamari

ASIAN FOOD PAIRING
Cantonese crispy spring rolls, crab rangoon, Gyoza

Testalonga

The wines of Testalonga defy convention in a lot of ways. Started in 2008 in Swartland, Craig and Carla Hawkins have become one of South Africa's leading natural wine producers

Description

Testalonga I Am The Ninja 2023

Grape Varietals & Region: 100% Chenin Blanc from Swartland, South Africa. Vineyard grows on decomposed sandstone. Vineyard is flat and located 95m above sea level

Taste Profile: Light yellow with aromas of fresh citrus fruits, honeysuckle and apricots. Crisp and refreshing with flavours of lime, green apples and white peach

Winemaking Process: Hand-harvested then fermented in fibreglass tank at a temperature of 8 degrees. It was racked 6 times during fermentation to remove the sediment. At a sugar of 35g/l it was bottled under crown cap where it was left to finish fermentation and build up a natural pressure of carbon dioxide. After 10 months the bottles were riddled and disgorged and topped with the same wine (from other decanted bottles) and crown capped again. No SO2 was ever added to the wine and neither was any settling or fining agent

Youthful & Spritzy Sparklings

Light, citrus driven & fun, a lot of these sparklings tend to have floral or tree fruit aromas like green apples. In more crisp styles, they are often more floral or citrus driven, and can be slightly sweet in more apple or pear driven fizzante styles

Ancestral Method

Also known as Petillant Naturel, it's the oldest version of sparkling wine making, and involves bottling the wine before fermentation has finished. A single fermentation is applied, trapping carbon dioxide to create natural carbonation.
This results in a little less control, and wines can sometimes come across a less refined compare to the traditional champagne method, and sometimes tends to have a slightly more beer-ish or cider-ish taste