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Lourens Family Wines

2024

‘Lua’

Grenache Noir   |   Piekenierskloof - South Africa
Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

In 2019, Franco was notified by a friend, Xander Grier, that this small, bushvine vineyard had some fruit available. This Piekenierskloof block, located at 1950 ft. above sea level, is on the drive back down to the valley from the site where Franco gets a bit of Chenin for his Skuinskap bottling. Named after his daughter Lua Ilse, this wine follows her birthdays and now in its 6th vintage.  It is one of the most distinguished and singular Grenaches produced in South Africa and in many ways becomes a beacon for others to seek out in terms of its elegance and moreish qualities.

The grapes were hand-harvested and lugged back to the cellar in small picking bins. About 75% of the fruit was de-stemmed but not crushed with the remaining portion left fully intact. Fermentation occurred without any additions in open top one-ton fermenters with the whole clusters placed atop the de-stemmed fruit. Franco hang plunged the wine a few times daily for the first four days to get the ferment active. After two weeks on skins the wine was gently pressed to two old 500L French tonneau for aging. The wine rested for ten months and the barrels were racked to tank to settle naturally without fining and with a coarse filtration.  It was bottled with a small sulfur addition.

Stats

  • Grapes: 100% Grenache Noir
  • Vineyard: Single site in Piekenierskloof farmed by the Sandell Family
  • Vine Age: 20-years-old
  • Soil Type: Sandstone & pebbly clay
  • Viticulture: Practicing organic – dry-farmed
  • Fermentation: Native – stainless steel (25% whole-cluster)
  • Skin Contact: 14 days
  • Aging: 10 months in neutral 500L French tonneau
  • Alcohol: 14.2%
  • pH: 3.49
  • Total Acidity: 5.5 g/L
  • Total SO2: 53 ppm
  • Total Production: 325 cases
  • UPC: 0781718583190
  • SRP: $44.99

Tasting Note

If a wine could sing the Stone’s She’s a Rainbow, this might be it — not because it is colorful in the obvious sense, but because every note arrives with effortless harmony. This is Grenache humming an elegant tone and not one of power. Wild strawberry gives way to pomegranate, then rose, a hint of sweet herbs (a negroni-like note here), a touch of spice, each appearing like another instrument joining the melody before slipping gracefully back into the whole. There is no crescendo, purely ballerina-like movement and precision.  It leaves you smiling without quite knowing why, convinced that beauty is sometimes at its most profound when it never asks to be noticed.

Press & Reviews

James Suckling

95

"This has wonderfully fragrant aromas of pomegranates, spiced plums, negroni and sweet herbs. Silky, refined and perfumed, with a medium body and fine, taut tannins. Weightless and focused. Fantastic. From bush vines grown at 650m above sea level. 3,500 bottles produced. Drink or hold."
- Claire Nesbitt

Tim Atkin MW

95

"Grenache can run away with you if you work it too hard," says Franco Lourens, but that's not
the case on this elegant, yet well-structured example from a sandstone-dominated vineyard
at 650 metres in Piekenierskloof. Fermented with 25% stems, it's a graceful, energetic red
with layers of wild strawberry, plum and rooibos tea and some savoury intrigue. 2026-33"
- Tim Atkin MW

The WineMag

95

"Grapes for a Piekenierskloof vineyard planted in 1998. 25% whole-bunch fermentation. Black berries, wilted rose, fynbos, earth and spice on the nose while the palate shows dense fruit, big acidity and firm but not coarse tannins. Pure and deep with no impression of sweetness – substantial but not ponderous, powerful yet precise."
- Christian Eedes
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Producer


Lourens Family Wines

Region


Piekenierskloof

Country


South Africa

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