Force Celeste - Pét Nat (2022)

One January afternoon Stompie dialed up Vine Street Imports saying he had some Pinotage and Colombard available and wasn't sure what to do with it. It is organically farmed and has incredibly low pH for the site. He didn't want to pass on it and thought about making a little mixed still wine. After a little chat, bubbles was the solution to the equation! All the grapes are grown from one single vineyard in the Malmesbury region. The vineyard was planted in 1999, all bush vines and dryland farmed. As of 2009 it has been farmed organically.

Soils are mostly decomposed granite with Malmesbury shale. Vineyards are planted on south-east facing slopes with about 1,000 feet elevation and roughly 23 miles to the Atlantic Ocean. The fruit was hand-harvested at 19.0°B in early January and then both varieties were whole-bunch pressed to old 500L French tonneau to ferment naturally for 10 days. When the sugar levels reach 25 grams/liter (ensuring 4 bars of pressure) the wine was transferred to tank and bottled. Fermentation finished in the bottle and the wine spent seven months on the lees prior to being disgorged in August. It was bottled without any addition of SO2.