Nose shows gentle red berry and spice aromas, with hints of fragrance. Palate is medium to full bodied, with supple tannins balancing well with fruit acid. Oak treatment is well handled, providing subtle cedar and walnut character without overshadowing the elegant fruit flavours.
After a disappointing 2005 where we decided not to bottle the vintage, we are happy to have the wine back in the range. The 2006 once again maintains its fruit-forward style, with structured yet supple tannins. - Anthony de Jager
"Solitude shows dramatic earthiness in place of honed fruit making it a less commercial proposition than many of Charles’s wines, but it is so much more intriguing for it." - Matthew Jukes' Top 50 from Cape Wine 2008
variety : Shiraz [ 100% Shiraz ]
winemaker : Anthony de Jager
wine of origin :
analysis : alc : 14.65 % vol rs : 2.6 g/l pH : 3.56 ta : 5.7 g/l
type : Red style : Dry body : Full wooded
pack : Bottle size : 0 closure : Cork
in the vineyard : In 1699 a certain Mr Dippenauw was granted an enormous farm by his employer, the Dutch East India Company. It is uncertain whether this was a reward for his industry or whether the bosses cast him into the wilderness because he'd married dangerously - a sister of Adam Tas, diarist of the early colonial Cape and political rebel (Tas was imprisoned by Governer Willem Adriaan van der Stel). What is known is that the newly-wed couple were so overwhelmed by the farm's isolation from Cape Town that they named it "Eenzaamheid", a Dutch word meaning solitude. Today Eenzaamheid is owned by Christo Briers-Louw, whose family has owned the land since 1775. Christo is a dedicated farmer, who has an intimate knowledge of the soils of Paarl. These gravelly, decomposed shale soils allow Shiraz to ripen without irrigation, producing wines of great expression and concentration.
In the vineyard:
This vineyard was planted in 1996, with two Shiraz clones (SH1 and SH21) grafted onto Richter 99 rootstock. The soil type is Swartland shale, a deep uniform decomposed soil with excellent water retention. This allows these unirrigated vines to easily ripen the crop without stressing during our hot, dry summers. The vines are planted on a west-facing slope in a south-west to north-east row direction using an extended Perold trellis system. This helps to ensure maximum cooling from prevailing summer winds.
Sufficient aeration also drastically reduces possible vineyard diseases. Straw is packed in every second row, to form a deep mulch which helps to retain moisture and keep weeds at bay. The mulch also improves soil microbe activity and root development. Strict winter pruning (8 - 10 two-eye bearer per running meter), and summer canopy management (2 shoots per bearer and 3 tip actions) ensure a well balanced crop, that reaches good phenolic ripeness.
A final crop thinning at 80% vêraison also ensures an even ripeness. The vineyard is regularly visited during the ripening period and tested by taste, visual and analytical examination to determine exact picking date.
about the harvest: Harvest date: 11th February 2006
The grapes were machine harvested full ripe at 25.9° B. Mechanised harvesting was possible due to the uniform nature of the fruit on the vines, following meticulous vineyard management.
in the cellar : The berries were transferred to 600 litre open-ended French oak barrels. Approximately 400kg of grapes per barrel was allowed to naturally start fermentation before being inoculated with L2056 yeast. During fermentation we performed three manual punch downs per day. Post fermentation maceration lasted for 8 days.
We basket pressed and the wine was sent to 225 litre French oak barriques for malolactic fermentation and further ageing. 40% new barrels were used and the wine was matured for a further 20 months prior to bottling.
Total production for the 2006 vintage was twenty barrels.