Vineyard Blocks

Maiden harvest from 1 block 3 yr old vines on 5 wire vertical trellis with moveable foliage wires. Clones SH21A; SH1A & SH99 all on 101 - 14 rootstock. "Mont Fleur" vineyard - high altitude Helderberg mountain NW facing slope. Steeply sloping site with rocky, granitic based Hutton soil. Lightly irrigated after veraison and shortly before harvest to avoid excessive stress during the critical ripening stage. Yield 1 ton / hect.

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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 : 19 / 2 / 98 @ 26° balling.

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Production

Handpicking into 20 kg lugboxes. Destemming and gentle crushing directly into small 2 ton open top fermentation tanks. Spontaneous natural yeast fermentation @ max. 33 deg. with the cap of skins punched down manually 2 - 4 times a day for 11 days. Wine drained directly to barrels together with single pressing from traditional basket press.

All our red wine undergo malolactic fermentation in the barrel. This helps to integrate the new oak component and fix colour and flavour compounds. 30% new French oak and 15 % new American oak was used from the high quality 'Francois Freres' and 'Demptos' cooperages.

Time in barrel 17 months with only a single racking.

This wine was bottled directly from the barrel unfiltered by hand.

Bottling date : 16 / 7 / 99.

Production : 25 cases.

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Tasting Notes

Dark red colour. Intense rasberry and plum aromas with intriguing pepper and leather  spiciness. A big, rich shiraz with a velvety texture and long, soft finish. Probably best between 2000 & 2006. Ideal with strong flavoured grilled red meat.

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Analysis

Alc.  13.8               SG.  1.6              TA  5.4             pH  3.71            VA  0.66               SO2  35 & 78