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VINEYARD BLOCKS
Mostly from 10 year old vines on 4 wire vertical trellis.
Clone CS 46A on 101-14 rootstock. Soil gravelly red Hutton
type. On low lying Helderberg mountain site. Lightly irrigated
after variason. Yield
8 tons / hect. 25% from high
altitude Mont Fleur vineyard. 4 year old vines. 8% merlot
incl.
VINTAGE CONDITIONS
A dry, hot summer. The ripening period hot and dry, but thankfully
not to many excessively hot days. The harvest was early with
ripe, healthy grapes producing big wines with high alcohols.
Harvest date 23 / 2 / 98 - 3 / 3 / 98 @ 24 - 25 ° balling.
PRODUCTION
100% destemming and crushing by hand directly into 2 ton open
top fermentation tanks. Spontaneous natural
yeast fermentation @ 30ºC with the cap of skins
punched down 2 - 4 times a day for 12 days. Aim was to extract
max. colour, flavour and tannins without undue harshness.
Wine drained directly to barrels together with single pressing
from traditional basket press. All wine undergoes malolactic
fermentation in the barrel. This helps integrate the new oak
component and fix colour and flavour compounds. 35%
new French oak and 5% new American oak was used from
the high quality " Taransaud" and "Demptos"
cooperages. Time in barrels 22 months,
which included several rackings to gradually clarify the wine
and assist maturation development. This wine was lightly fined
with egg whites ( 2 - 3 eggs per barrel ), before bottling
unfiltered by hand on the property.
Bottling date : 21 / 12 / 98 Production : 700 cases.
TASTING NOTES
Deep red / black colour. Inky blackcurrant fruit and spicy
Christmas pudding aromas. Persistent, richly - textured palate
with layers of berry fruit, tar and spicy oak. A big well
structured wine with a long finish. Probably best between
2003 and 2008. Enjoy with rich meat dishes.
ANALYSIS
Alc. 14.36 SG.2.0 TA 5.6 pH
3.74 VA 0.67 SO2 40 & 73
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