There is a new wine farm in Franschhoek and we were invited to the opening of the new, very beautiful cellar at La Lude in Franschhoek and taste their new MCC Brut and Rosé, which will be released next year. Owned by Advocate Nick Barrow and his wife Ferda, this is just past the museum on the way up to the Franschhoek pass. It is named after one of the most beautiful chateaux on the Loire.
This is a special machine in the
cellar, which they had made to a design from Champagne. It can separate the three levels of pressing when
selecting juice to ferment into quality bubbly
Taking a tour of the cellar. The
couple on the left are the owners, Nick
and Ferda Barrow
Listening to the winemaker, Paul Gerber
The first 2012
bottling racked in the naturally cool cellar
They bottle all the reserve wines in magnums. Wine-maker Paul Gerber is a pioneer in
fermentation of Cap Classique on cork. The process – Agarfé – leads to a more
complex and unique development of flavours and mouth-feel. "The main
reason for this is the difference in the rate of exchange of gases that takes
place when the bottle is closed with a cork for the secondary fermentation and
aging compared with crown-cap," he says. "It leads to a wine with a
unique character, and in Champagne some of the houses such as Bollinger, Krug
and Taittinger still use it". At Le Lude, portions of MCC are
fermented and aged under both cork and crown-cap in both 750ml and 1500ml. The
research data from this will be shared with the University of Stellenbosch so
as to accurately asses the impact on the chemical composition of the wine and
the changes that have occurred. The wine spends a minimum of 30 months in
bottle, and the corks are especially imported by Amorim for this purpose. The
first batch is from the 2012 harvest and will be available to market in 2015.
But they do also still use crown caps
on the majority of the bottles until degorgement and release
The owners, Nick and Ferda Barrow
A view of the
bottle cellar
A light lunch
had been prepared for us by the Barrows’ daughter, who is a chef.
A cheese board
with preserved green figs and watermelon konfyt (same as confit)
Local coppa
ham
We tasted the
MCC Brut, and the Rosé, both of which will be released early in 2015 and the
base wine that went to these bubblies. Both are extremely drinkable and we
await their release with anticipation.
Labels are yet
to be designed, but these elegant bottles are made especially for Le Lude in
Italy. They have the logo LL moulded
into the glass
A
demonstration of releasing the cork in an MCC bottle, disgorging the wine to remove the lees
The result!
Really
delicious garlic and herb Toulouse sausages from Somerset West
Parma ham
Wine enjoyed!
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
