‘Force Celeste’ Sémillon

The ‘Force Celeste’ Sémillon is made in an oxidative style and shows Stompie’s minimalist ethos well. All the grapes come from the Waterval Vineyard in the Siebritskloof Valley coming off the Paardeberg Mountain, owned by Barry Schreiber and farmed by his daughter Franziska Wickens. The bush vines were planted in 1997 on decomposed granite and dry farmed since its initial planting. Since 2014, the southwest facing vineyard has only received organic sprayings and the undervine work has been done purely by machine and not chemically. If you think of the Paardeberg Mountain like an outstretched hand, the Siebritskloof Valley is the furthest from the ocean in between the ring and pinkie finger. Diurnal swings here can be about 30 degrees F, which really helps retain acidity and develop aroma precursors. In 2022, it was a cool growing season with just enough rain for a good crop and low disease pressure and minimal (organic) spraying during growth.

The grapes were hand-harvested into small lug-boxes, limiting the damage to the grape in larger bins. The grapes were picked early in the morning prior to the sun coming up in order to retain as much acidity as possible and over the period of ten days to get varying ripening levels. About three quarters of the grapes were whole-bunch pressed in stainless steel at cooler temperature (57°F). The rest of the grapes were fermented on their skins. After 11 months of aging on the gross lees, the lots were blended and bottled without fining or filtration and just a small sulfur addition.