TESTALONGA BABY BANDITO STAY BRAVE SKIN FERMENTED CHENIN BLANC 2022

Tangy, herbal, spicy, a touch grippy, this is a fascinating SA Chenin Blanc from natural wine royalty Testalonga. Organically farmed, the fruit spends eight days on skins, developing citrus, orange peel and floral flavours, and is full of youthful, perky acidity.

Winery notes (2022 Vintage)
"Hand harvested and 100% Destemmed into open 1500L fermenters. Fermented on the skins for 8 days before being pressed off into a 3300L old oak Foudre and 1 x 1500L barrels. After 4 months the wine was blended and aged in one 10 000L fibreglass tank. No yeast (or other) inoculation or additives apart from a small amount of SO2 shortly before bottling. Ambient fermentation (the juice/ wine is not cooled). 100% malolactic fermentation.  A clarifying filtration was done, not fined.

Baby Bandito is a project that started in 2015. Craig & Carla wanted to work with vineyards that deliver wines that can be drunk young yet still “over deliver” in quality one would expect from our most affordable wine. There was a heavy influence from street artists (the good ones, not just your drunk student defacing someone’s wall, unless it was good) in the labels and the idea of a “series” using different and bright colours. The names of the wines come from expressions that are used as if giving encouragement to a child. Stay Brave is the “Baby” skin contact Chenin.