(l)Equinox Wines Silt 2022
When Muscat does all sorts of weird and wonderful things...
...and when jiggling the bottle is beneficial!
The Wine:
Golden in colour with the prettiest nose that had my brain running through all the Rhône varieties...before finally pausing to consider Muscat.
Honeysuckle and potpourri, dried apricots, oranges, fig leaf, nutmeg, and a sea foggy seaweedy briney funk (that calms down by day 2).
Dry, lower acidity but with undeniable body and gentle lemon peel texture. By day 2 the salty kombu vibes die down to dried celery, papaya, dried ginger and a sense of distant dried tropical fruits like mango and pineapple on the textured and lengthy finish.
Vini + Viti:
So ja, it’s Muscat d’Alexandrie - planted on loamy alluvial soils with high salinity in Olifantsrivier. Picked early for freshness, 90 days on skins post ferment.
Final thoughts:
We’re not all going to get along with this wine because of the initial funk on both the nose and palate. It took me 2 days (bottom of the bottle) to realise that this is unfiltered and that the ginger and apricot notes become more profound as the bottle empties - you could take the slow approach and wait for the fabulous evolution...or lemme suggest a curveball: give this a gentle shake before pouring!
Find the Wine:
I picked this up at Vino Pronto.
