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VINEYARD BLOCKS
Mostly from 11 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. 35% from high
altitude Mont Fleur vineyard. 5 year old vines. 6% merlot
incl.
VINTAGE CONDITIONS
A dry, hot summer. The ripening period was hot and dry, but
thankfully not too many excessively hot days. The harvest
was early with ripe, healthy grapes producing big wines with
high alcohols.
Harvest date: 11 / 3 / 99 - 23 / 3 / 99 @ 23.5 - 25.6°
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 : 22 December 2000
Production : 580 cases.
TASTING NOTES
Deep, dark, brooding red colour.
Pungent cassis, plum and spice nose. Evolves in the glass
to show more complexity and subtlety.
Intense fruit flavours and weight on the mid palate, which
follow through to a persistent finish. Dense, ripe tannins
suggest great ageing potential. Probably best between 2003
- 2010.
Enjoy with rich meat dishes.
ANALYSIS
Alc. 13.99 SG.2.0 TA 5.5 pH 3.73 VA 0.66 SO2 39 & 94
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