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Testalonga

2025

‘I am the Ninja’

Méthode Ancestrale   |   Swartland - South Africa
Shelf Talker Spec Sheet Wine Label Bottle Image

About

‘I am the Ninja’ is Testalonga’s latest addition to the portfolio. Craig & Carla love Méthode Ancestral wines and the texture they bring. They wanted this wine to be drier than the “I wish I was a Ninja” as they feel Chenin has more depth when it is drier. The fruit comes from a 64-year-old sandstone vineyard on the Piketberg Mountain. As for the label, the photo was taken by their friend Martin Shambrock in London of his neighbor’s dog, Layla. They love the photo and think it suits this wine perfectly; it is serious but playful at the same time.  The ’25 is more refined than previous vintages with higher natural acidity bringing even more high tones to this alto-fizz plus an additional month on lees in bottle.

The grapes were harvested by hand and cold fermented in stainless steel tanks. During fermentation, the wine was racked plenty to remove sediment. After two months and when the wine still had 30 g/L residual sugar, it was bottled under a crown cap to complete fermentation and build natural carbonation. After 12 months, the bottles were riddled and disgorged in October 2023, topped off with the same wine from decanted bottles, and sealed again with a crown cap. No SO2 was added, and the wine saw no settling or fining agents throughout the process.

Stats

  • Grapes: 100% Chenin Blanc
  • Vineyard: Moutonshoek (Piketberg)
  • Vine Age: 66-years-old
  • Soil Type: Sandstone
  • Viticulture: Practicing organic
  • Fermentation: Native — stainless-steel
  • Skin Contact: None
  • Aging: Aged in tank for 2 months then bottle for 12 months on lees before disgorgement
  • Alcohol: 10%
  • Residual Sugar: 11 g/L
  • pH: 2.96
  • Total Acidity: 11.4 g/L
  • Total SO2: 2 ppm (none added)
  • Total Production: 833 cases
  • UPC: 7070334498197
  • SRP: $26.99

Tasting Note

Remarkable clarity, energetic, and utterly alive, it bursts with Nashi pear, lemon zest, tart apple, fresh sage carrying into a a faint herbal wildness, carried on bubbles that feel more like laughter than precision. There is nothing self-conscious here—only pure joy and the irresistible sense that wine can still pleasure us when we stop asking it to behave.

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Producer


Testalonga

Region


Swartland

Country


South Africa

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