Vineyard Blocks

Mostly from one block 6 yr old vines on 7 wire vertical trellis with moveable foliage wires. Clones SH21A; SH1A & SH99 all on 101 - 14 rootstock. 5000 vines / hect. "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 6,5 tons / hect.

 

Vintage Conditions

A dry, warm to hot summer. The ripening period was warm and dry.  The harvest was early with ripe, healthy grapes producing big wines with high alcohols and excellent structure with good acidity and fine tannins.

Harvest date : 24 / 2 / 01 @ 26.2° 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. 31 deg. with the cap of skins punched down manually 2 - 4 times a day for 12 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. 35% new French oak and 15 % 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 : 8 / 11 / 2002.

Production : 210 cases.

 

Tasting Notes

Incredibly dark red colour. Intense blackberry and peppered fennel nose. Big, rich mouthfilling palate with lots of fruit and fine, ripe tannins.  Long warm finish.  Probably best between 2005 & 2010. Ideal with strong flavoured red meat, especially local venison.

 

Analysis

Alc.  15.58              SG.  2.0             TA  6.5             pH  3.28             VA  0.53             SO2  24 & 35