What Is Méthode Cap Classique?
South Africa’s own and unique interpretation of the Champagne-style of winemaking, the first
Cap Classique was produced in 1971. The name implies a natural sparkling wine, wine bottle-fermented in the age-old
European tradition to develop the magical sparkle driven by over 50 million tiny bubbles found in each bottle.
STORY
Winemaking
Le Lude’s custom-built winery is one of the few cellars in South Africa exclusively used for making Cap Classique.
Grapes from specially selected blocks are hand-picked during cool early-morning temperatures to ensure optimum freshness. The bunches are pressed whole, a critical part of the process of creating a great sparkling wine, with only the first pressing of juice – our cuvee – used in the making of the base wines. These base wines, the building blocks of the final product, are regularly tasted by discerning palates before the components are blended for the process of bottle fermentation.
Once bottled, the bottles ferment and mature horizontally in cool, dark cellars for a minimum of twelve months. It is here that the wines undergo a mystical process, sugar is converted to alcohol creating the millions of tiny bubbles, while the lees upon which the wine lies gives flavour, complexity and deliciousness.
After riddling and disgorging, Cap Classique wines are left to mature on the cork for some time to ensure integration and balance. This commitment to quality is evident in your glass every time a Le Lude Cap Classique cork is popped.
What Is Agrafé® – Tirage Liège
Le Lude is the first South African winery to use the Agrafe® method in its MCC, implying that
during this time under bottle-fermentation a natural cork was used to seal the bottle instead of the more widely-used
steel crown-cap. The word Agrafe® literally means “staple”, and it is this staple that secures the cork to the
bottle during the process, as well as after the final process of disgorgement where it gives the wines of Le Lude
a distinct feature. But Agrafe® is not just about originality in aesthetics. By allowing the wine
to undergo bottle-fermentation while closed under a natural cork, the resulting product has been proven to show
more developed, multi-layered characters making Agrafe® a certification of extraordinary quality.