Ep 138: Mini Series – South African Wine: Chardonnay in Stellenbosch with Winemaker Mike Dawson of Journeys End (Part 2)

EAT SLEEP WINE REPEAT: A wine podcast

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This is the second part of my mini series on wineries in South Africa. Today's episode is with Winemaker Mike Dawson from Journey’s End. This is a winery with some of the closest vineyards to False Bay. They have won The Drinks Business Green Wine awards in 2020 and 2021 and provided over 1 million meals to the local community during the tough times of covid in 2020. You will learn all about this very sustainable and ethical winery, and in terms of wine we will be focusing on the grape variety Chardonnay.

If you want to skip ahead:

1.54: Discussing the current harvest

4.09: What happens to the grapes if it rains to close to harvest

5.09: What has been one of the most challenging vintages and why

7.39: How Mike got into winemaking

10.00: Using wine traditions from the past in the winery

12.07: Discussing Journey’s End location and terroir to understand the wines

15.25: Looking at all the sustainable and ethical recognition and focus of Journey’s End

18.54: The Trebuchet, and throwing wine barrels across the farm

25.11: How to decide what Chardonnay will go into each wine

27.17: Chardonnay with oak or without, and French oak V American

29.23: Having malic acid in Chardonnay

30.15: How easy is Chardonnay to work with in the winery?

32.16: Temperatures for fermenting Chardonnay

34.10: How does Chardonnay from the coastal regions of Stellenbosch compare to more inland Chardonnays?

35.23: Tasting and talking about The Haystack Chardonnay 2021 £13 Noble Green Wines

39.33: Tasting and talking about The V1 Chardonnay 2021 £19 Noble Green Wines

40.50: Building Amphoras and the Brownian Effect – how this affects the texture and flavour of wine

43.54: Tasting and talking about The Destination Chardonnay 2019 £23.50 Noble Green Wines

48.33: Differences found when using whole bunch V de-stemmed Chardonnay

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Until next time, Cheers to you!