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De Trafford Plan B 2007

Vineyard Blocks

 “Plan B” is a true “second” wine – a fairly random collection of barrels we feel are not quite up to the high quality we expect for our wines, but too good to sell off in bulk.

 

Cabernet Sauvignon 41%

This year the majority of the wine is from a beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon block from the nearby Waterkloof farm. Too much growth in this block in 2007 meant we could not get the required intensity and ripeness without excessively high sugars.

Petit Verdot 18%

We simply had a little more Petit Verdot than we required and could happily add some of this wonderful wine to the blend.

Merlot 17% Cabernet Franc 9%

Our new Merlot and Cabernet Franc vineyard was caught at the wrong time by one of the mini heat waves and had some overripe jammy flavours.

Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 15%

One of the barrels of 2006 that took nearly 2 years to finish fermenting turned out really well, adding a little richness and complexity to the blend.

 

 Vintage Conditions

Typical cold, wet winter followed by a normal growing season with enough rain and warm weather to produce good, balanced growth. The knife - edge harvest conditions with small heatwaves alternating with short, wet, cold spells meant some of our young vines didn’t quite deliver on our high expectations and were downgraded to this “second” wine. 

 

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 10 to 14 days. Wine drained directly to barrels together with single pressing from traditional basket press. All our wine undergoes malolactic fermentation in the barrel. 30% new French oak was used from high quality coopers. Time in barrels 17 months with several rackings to gradually clarify the wine and assist maturation. Lightly fined with fresh egg whites before bottling unfiltered by hand on the property.

Bottling date: 20 / 8 / 08

Production: 285 x 12 x 750mℓ (Only sold by case of 12)

 

Tasting Notes

Attractive medium deep red colour.

Lots of mint and herbaceous aromas with blackcurrant and other complex berries. 

Linear palate with vibrant tannins and quite a long dry finish.

Drinking well now (especially with braaied wors), but better between 2010 and 2015.

 

Analysis

Alc.  15.19%           SG. 3.1          TA  5.4           pH  3.81          VA  0.57           SO2  30free 73total

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