Nederburg Heritage Heroes The Young Airhawk, Western Cape

Description

Nederburg Heritage Heroes The Young Airhawk pays tribute to Johann Graue’s son Arnold. Both father and son had a major impact on the South African wine industry and helped improve wine-making in South Africa in General. Johann Graue is honoured with his own wine, Nederburg Heritage Heroes The Brew Master whilst the Nederburg Young Airhawk remembers Arnold Graue who died tragically young, at the age of 29, in a light aircraft crash.

Nederburg has a long wine-making history stretching back over 200 years to 1791 when Phillipus Bernadus Wolvaart was granted ownership of 49 hectares of land, in what is now Paarl, by the Dutch East India Company. He called his new property Nederburgh and immediately set about clearing land and planting vines. By 1808 he had planted over 63,000 vines laying the foundations for what was to become the wine company we know today. Nederburg has changed hands many times through the years but was owned by the large South African wine and spirit company, Distell, for many years. Most recently, in 2023, Distell was taken over by Heineken and integrated into Heineken Beverages, a company created by the merger of Distell and Namibia Breweries. Since 2021 the team at Nederburg has been led by cellarmaster and seasoned winemaker, Samuel Viljoen. he is ably assisted by winemakers Zinaschke Steyn, Imellia Prins and Jamie Williams. Nederburg remains one of South Africa’s most awarded wineries and their wines display a hallmark combination of fruit and finesse.

Nederburg Heritage Heroes The Young Airhawk is 100% barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc. The grapes are sourced from cool-climate vineyards in Elim, Darling and Durbanville. Grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed and then the juice is fermented in a combination of second- and third-fill 228 and 300 litre barrels. The fermentation temperature of each barrel was monitored regularly. The wine, kept on the lees for nine months, was stirred periodically to add creaminess and complexity.