De Trafford Chenin Blanc Reserve 2021

The grapes were lightly crushed and first spent two hours on the skin before going into the traditional basket press for gentle pressing. A small amount of sulfur was added to the juice, which was left to rest for two days before being left in wooden barrels and fermented spontaneously. "Spontaneous" in this context means that no commercial yeasts were added to the juice; only the wild yeast naturally occurring on the fruit and in the environment set the fermentation in motion. The wine fermented and aged for 22 months in a combination of 400-liter and 700-liter barrels, with regular stirring up and down of the yeast (batonnage). No new wood was used in this process and malolactic fermentation took place only partially. Finally, the wine was lightly tinted with bentonite (a natural clay) and filled unfiltered by hand on the bottle.