2019 Huilkrans

I spoke to Chris Alheit at his winery, where we discussed his 2019s. These wines represent another raft of outstanding, terroir-driven, “honest” bottlings. “The vines had struggled in 2018 and then they went nuts in 2019,” Alheit explained. “It was a dream year, not unlike 2017. Plus, we had a full tank of the Cartology, which I think has become more refined. The 2019 Magnetic North has 3.5gm/L residual sugar. It just happened that way – the fermentation just stopped. Maybe that’s why everyone seems to like it. The Fire By Night had to be renamed Broom Ridge. I’m still not sure I like that name – maybe I’ll get used to it. It has a very nice pH and it just came naturally and didn’t require a lot of thought. The Nautical Dawn was an early pick on January 25 and matured in two foudres. I also made a sweet wine, Lost & Found, after several failed attempts. The farm where I sourced the fruit from was taken over by the owner’s son, who invited me back for another try, and he had pruned the vines harder and improved the canopy. We dried the grapes on the farm for two weeks and it underwent a four- or five-day pressing. We made around 2,000 liters in a stainless steel tank that fermented until around November. There’s about 54 Brix [equating to over 400gm/L residual sugar].” Alheit’s Lost & Found blew me away with its purity and precision, very Eszencia-like in style with a sublime viscous texture. The bad news is that it’s a one-off. Alas, after six generations of ownership, the son moved to Australia and the farm was sold. The new proprietors have not made their intentions clear, but in any case, Chris Alheit admitted that the departure meant that he lost his enthusiasm to pursue it further.