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Tasting Notes
Medium bodied with pronounced acidity, this is a beautiful Chenin that shows white peach and lemon rind fruit, with ginger, lemongrass, a salty minerality, and beeswax notes.
Body is the impression of a wines weight, density, or its ‘mouth-feel’. Some wines feel weighty, or full bodied, while others feel light bodied. Wine runs the gamut from light to full, with most falling somewhere in between.
ACIDITY
Low
Moderate
Balanced
Crisp
High
Acidity is a foundational component in wine. In fact, low acidity, or ‘flabby’ wine (as the term suggests) is a negative. You can sense acidity mainly on the sides of your tongue. Acidity generally ranges from balanced to high. Crisp acidity adds freshness, making your mouth water. Acidity is a necessary element and helps to balance other components.
SWEETNESS
Dry
Off Dry
Medium Dry
Medium Sweet
Very Sweet
Most wines are characterized as dry to off-dry, but there are some grape varietals, like Riesling, that run the gamut from dry to sweet. The tip of the tongue mainly detects sweetness, which is why it is often the primary characteristic detected. Sweetness is derived from residual sugar that did not ferment into alcohol.
ALCOHOL
13%
Alcohol is the by-product of fermentation. Differing grape varieties have differing potential alcohol levels, but regardless warmer areas result in riper grapes resulting in higher alcohol. Alcohol level is an objective number, but its affect on its palate impression is largely determined with how well integrated and balanced it is with other components.
Chenin shines in South Africa and this is a prime example.
GRAPE VARIETAL(S)
Chenin Blanc
100%Shuh-NAN BLON
Chenin Blanc is often overlooked, but makes some of the most compelling white wines across Palate Character, including bone dry to sweet in style. Some of the best expressions come from France’s Loire Valley, and South Africa, which at their best are concentrated, crisp, sometimes long-lived, mineral driven wines that deserve more recognition for their high quality age-worthy whites.
Alheit was founded in 2011 by husband-and-wife team, Chris and Suzaan Alheit. They traveled and worked in winemaking regions across the world with a special affinity for Europe before starting their own boutique winery.
Alheit focuses on white varietals from old sustainable and dry-farmed bush vines, employing minimally invasive winemaking, believing that the wine is made in the vineyard. The product of low-yielding vines, the wines are naturally fermented in neutral oak to retain their distinctive terroir.
The wines of Alheit, especially their Chenin Blanc, is dry, bright, but with remarkable concentration and minerality that speaks to the rocky high altitude vineyards from which they are farmed.
White Peach
Ginger
Salt
