Vineyard Blocks

Mostly from the neighbouring Keermont vineyard. A north east facing block. 8 yr old vines on 7 wire vertical trellis, clone SH9 on 101.14 rootstock. Soil deep red Hutton, medium potential decomposed granite. Yield 5.5 tons / hect.

Lightly irrigated at veraison.

 

Vintage Conditions 

Slightly above average winter rain was followed by a hot and dry spring and trouble-free growing season.  A little rain delayed harvest slightly, but refreshed the struggling vines.  The small berries and moderate ripening period produced concentrated grapes with lots of flavour and sugar. 

Harvest date : 24 / 2 / 06 – 13 / 3 / 06 @  23.4 – 24.7° 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 2 - 4 times a day for an average of 12 days. Wine drained directly to barrels together with single pressing from traditional basket press.

All our red wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in the barrel. This helps to integrate the new oak component and fix colour and flavour compounds. 15% new French oak and 5% new American oak was used.

Time in barrel 20 months with only a single racking.

This wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered by hand.

Bottling date : 17 / 12 / 2007.

Production : 620 x 12 x 750ml

 

Tasting Notes

Attractive, deep red colour. Rich, dark, wild berry fruit and dusty fynbos nose. Full, elegant palate packed with complex fruit and soft, ripe tannins.  Finely textured with a long, dry finish.  Probably best between mid 2008 & 2016. Ideal with a variety of herb or spice infused meat dishes.

 

Analysis

Alc.  14.83               SG.  2.0             TA  5.3              pH  3.68             VA  0.59            SO2  30 & 89