Thorn Clarke Milton Park Chardonnay 2018

Rubus Proprietary Red is made from 90% Garnacha and 10% Syrah

Tasting Notes: This blend of red varietals combine to produce a flavorsome wine rich in blackberry and plum fruits. Aromas of subtle spices, berry and fruitcake.

The Grenaches represent 90% of the final blend. From all the Grenaches, more than 70% is represented by Garnacha Tinta, from 35 year old vines planted on very small plots using the goblet (bush vine) pruning technique, where you can see the typicities of it, the survival spirit of the vine and everything is very artisanal. The remaining Grenache is a blend of Garnacha Peluda (Lledoner Pelut), Garnacha Tintorera and some loose Garnacha Blanca vines.
The Syrah, representing 10% of the final blend, is mostly planted in trellis with irrigation, all mechanized, but where its quality is not diminished since this foreign variety requires another form of viticulture, it needs more water and other cultivation techniques, producing aromatic wines with a lot of color, contributing what the Grenache may lack.

Located in a mountainous area called SistemaI Ibérico, in an area with great geographical interest, undulating soils, and with a maximum altitude close to 1000 masl, characterized on stony, loose and nutrient-poor soils. Being heterogeneous soils in their entirety, but intended for this assembly, 80% of vineyards located at an altitude higher than 800 meters above sea level, planted in goblet (bush vine) with 60% of vines over 50 years old.

We can find these types of soils:
- Gravel, composed of pebbles and boulders, coming from alluvium, with good drainage giving intense, structured and fleshy wines.
- Red Slates, with low fertility and where they hardly retain rainwater, giving subtle, fine and elegant wines.
- Slates gray, darker in color, retain the heat of the day and expel it at night, resulting in high-grade grapes and low yields, with structured wines and mineral notes.
- Marl or marlstone, Composed of limestones and clays, deep soils, giving wines with body, warm, powerful and aromatic.
- In addition to areas with clay, sandy and limestone soils.

Vinification is carried out separately, using different strains of Saccharomyces yeasts, but also non-Saccharomyces strains for sugar consumption and that do not produce ethanol. We look for strains of yeast that provide primary aromas in the less old grenache, in the old we look for strains that provide polysaccharides from their cell walls and that produce glycerol. For the Syrah, vinifications are made at a lower temperature to favor primary and secondary aromas, but with successive delestages (racking) to obtain color; and once the alcoholic fermentation is finished, we make a first blending based on the correction of the acidity, so that later the malolactic fermentation takes place and once finished we decide on a final blend before the brief ageing in French oak of part of the blend, the part that we want to round by the contribution of tannin from the oak that will polymerize with the tannin of the grape.

Pairs with grilled meats, lamb, duck or barbecue pork

Rubus Chardonnay Colchagua Valley is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.

Attractive yellow color with some green tones. Its intense varietal character reminds one ripe fruits like pineapple, with notes of melon and honey well harmonized with oak. In the mouth it is full, rich and buttery.

Grapes are harvested in the morning in order to avoid high temperatures.

At the winery, the grapes are gently pressed.
Alcoholic fermentation is held between 15º and 16º Celsius.
Then, 25% of the wine goes into American Oak barrels for 3 months.
After this, the blend is made, clarified, cold stabilized and filtered. Right before bottling, the wine goes through an on-line filtration system (plate and sterile membrane) to ensure microbiological stability

As far as the food pairing, it is delicious with pasta, fish, seafood and mild cheeses. It is also delicious on its own as an aperitif.

As the unofficial drink of the Riebeek Valley, the Riebeek Chenin Blanc is the perfect every day wine that offers uncomplicated quality for the novice and connoisseur alike.

Packed with upfront tropical fruit, the nose charms with an abundance of guava and gooseberries. The pallets follows through with fruit flavors, balanced by a crisp acid to ensure a fresh and fruity style of wine.

Grapes came from both bosstok and trellised vines with some of the vineyards as old as 46 years. Fermentation was done at lower than usual temperatures to capture the fresh fruit flavors.

Very accessible and suited to almost every occasion, the Riebeek Chenin Blanc never disappoints.