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VINEYARD BLOCKS
1 block 13 year old vines on 4 wire vertical trellis. Clone
MO 192 on 101 - 14 rootstock. On low lying Helderberg mountain
site. Poor gravelly clay soil. Yield 9
tons / hect.
2nd block 7 year old vines on 5 wire vertical trellis. Mix
of "new clones" on R110 & R99 rootstocks. 'Mont
Fleur' vineyard - high altitude mountain slope. Soil deep
red Hutton. Yield
9 tons / hect. Both vineyards
lightly irrigated after veraison to avoid excessive stress
during the critical ripening stage.
VINTAGE CONDITIONS
A dry, warm to hot summer. The ripening period was hot and
dry, but with only a few excessively hot days ((over 30°C),
producing ripe, healthy grapes with high sugars and balanced
structure and fine, complex flavours.
Harvest date : 9 / 2 / 01 - 1 /3 / 01 @ 24.6 - 25.8° balling.
PRODUCTION
Handpicking into 20 kg lugboxes. Destemming and gentle crushing
directly into small 2 ton open top fermentation tanks. Spontaneous
natural yeast fermentation @ max. 32 deg. with the cap of
skins punched down manually 3- 4 times a day for 11 days.
Wine drained directly to barrels together with single pressing
from traditional basket press.
All our red wines undergo malolactic fermentation in the barrel.
35% new French oak and 5% new American oak was used from high
quality coopers. Time in barrel 18 months, which included
several rackings to gradually clarify the wine and assist
maturation.
This wine was lightly fined with fresh egg whites before bottling
unfiltered by hand on the property. Bottling date : 5/9/02.
Production : 878 cases.
TASTING NOTES
Dark red colour. Intense dark cherry and plum nose with a
complex herbaceous (local fynbos) character. A big, intensely
flavoured merlot with a classic rich, mouthfilling palate.
Probably best between 2004 & 2012. Ideal with strong flavoured
grilled red meat.
ANALYSIS
Alc. 14.57 SG. 1.5 TA 5.2 pH
3.42 VA 0.62 SO2 35 & 69
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