About Hartenberg Occasional Riesling

Green harvesting was carried out at véraison. This was followed by rigorous selection of each bunch, prior to picking, thereby ensuring that only sun-kissed and botrytised grapes were crushed. About 50% of the incoming grapes showed the positive presence of botrytis. The grapes were hand-picked at daybreak, de-stemmed, gently crushed and underwent 12 hours skin contact at 15˚C followed by light pressing. The free-run juice was split from the press juice and fermented at 16-18 ˚C. The wine was given a filtration prior to bottling.

The first release of the variety was the 1984 vintage and since that time our Rieslings have been recognized in South Africa as one of the “must-buys”. The style of the wine has been driven by a niche market which is in search of crisp, fresh Riesling, but also a subtle sweetness. Carl Schultz, our Cellar Master, was fortunate to gain an intimate knowledge of the grape, learnt from the “father” of the variety in South Africa, Frans Malan and his son, Johan, during the time he worked at Simonsig Estate.