Villa Esposto Straw Wine 2019

Villa Esposto, wine range, pays tribute to the many Italians who have played such a pivotal role in South Africa, not only in the field of winemaking but also in various civil engineering projects. In particular, it pays homage to Louis Theodore Esposto, who arrived from Italy in 1914. Louis and many other Italians built the water canal, that today is a vital “fountain of life” in our wine-growing region, Olifants River.

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Grapes were handpicked and dried in the sun for 2 weeks.

This range is made from bush vine vineyards, on the farm Arbeideind (Basie van Lill) We use 2nd and 3rd fill, French oak barrels for the fermentation process. We're also part of the Old Vine Project, as these vineyards-age ranges from 35+ years.

It all started in 1969 when Basie van Lill and some guys from school had a plan. They decided to plant Muscat de Alexandre on own roots, trained as bush vines and of course with no irrigation, because of the unique climate of the mountains and very good care from the owner, the vines survived 52 vintages and are still going strong. Grapes were handpicked and dried in the sun for 2 weeks. During this process the sugar content increases with up to 20 balling. The grapes were so nice, it had to be pressed twice, to extract all the goodness. At this high sugar, fermentation is a challenge for any yeast. However, the yeast declared the wine perfect at 18% sugar and stopped fermenting the sugar. The wine is then left to settle naturally, stabilized, filtered and bottled to preserve all the natural goodness.