NATURAL WINE｜2020 ærkeengel Semillon

2020 ærkeengel Semillon

Varietal Composition｜100% Semillon
Flavour｜Creamy, nutty, honeyed and ripe lemon characters—delicious, juicy and generous. Its smooth, flowing, full-bodied nature balances savoury elements with rich citrus fruit and an underlying sweetness.
Palate｜A creamy, yeasty wine with flavours of apple and lemon cordial on the palate.
Region｜Adelaide Hills
Alcohol｜12%
Drinking Window｜2022 – 2027

About the Vineyard
Ærkeengel is Danish for “archangel,” a tribute to Charlotte’s mother, who is half Danish. The fruit comes from Deanery Vineyard in Balhannah, Adelaide Hills. The 2020 season was considered very good: stable weather during flowering supported healthy yields. Around Christmas, three consecutive days reached above 40°C, causing some sunburn damage to exposed fruit, though most clusters were protected by their downward-hanging position. Ripening was unaffected, and fruit quality remained strong.

Vinification
No skin contact. Grapes were destemmed and pressed into French oak. The juice was oxidised prior to fermentation. No SO₂ was added at this stage. Fermentation began naturally without inoculated yeast, with both wine and lees maturing together in oak for 19 months. Bottled at the end of 2022, then rested for a further 12 months before release. Unfined and unfiltered, with only a minimal addition of SO₂ before bottling. No other additions.

International Reviews
The Wine Front: 93 points

About the Winery
Charlotte Dalton Wines, based in Port Elliot, South Australia, was founded by Charlotte Hardy in 2015 with a philosophy of low-intervention winemaking. Just a few months after her first release in 2016, the winery was named one of James Halliday’s Top 10 Best New Wineries of 2016, earning a 5-star rating. Charlotte was a Top 10 finalist in the 2017 Young Gun of Wine awards, and in 2021 she won the Young Gun of Wine People’s Choice Award.