Dornier Cocoa Hill Red 2012

The wine shows bright fruits on the nose with hintsof spice, liquorice and clove. The palate shows smooth pure fruit with refined notes of raspberries, cherries and plum. The palate is full, fresh and lively with a dense yet very supple tannin structure and a well-balanced, integrated acidity leaving a persisting finish.

Braised oxtail, Boeuf bourguignon, charcuterie platter and Smoked kudu Carpaccio.

variety : Merlot [ 42% Merlot, 38% Shiraz, 14% Cabernet Franc, 6% Malbec ]
winery : Dornier Wines
winemaker : JC Steyn
wine of origin : Western Cape
analysis : alc : 13.5 % vol  rs : 1.6 g/l  pH : 3.57  ta : 5.5 g/l  va : 0.46 g/l  
type : Red  style : Dry  body : Full   wooded
pack : Bottle  size : 750ml  closure : Cork  

ageing : From 2014 for up to 4 years.

In a time of seafaring spice, pirates played in Table Bay... Among them was Long Ben - as fierce as he was tall, he looted and pillaged and scavenged from all. Ben fast became known for being up to no good, and so fled from the seas and gave up his loot. He planted some vines, as was the way and peered out towards the ocean almost every day. Long Ben would have gazed longingly at the bista of Table Bay from where our vines grow today, on Cocoa Hill.

in the vineyard : 
the Cocoa Hill Red 2012 is a youthful yet refined blend of Merlot, Shiraz, Cabernet Franc and Malbec which grows in the decomposed red granite souls of Cocoa Hill - a hilltop in the folds of the Stellenbosch Mountain, siperbly positioned in prime South African terroir.

The 2012 vintage will be remembered as bringin one of the longest ripening periods recorded at Dornier. The heat spell in January was followed by an unusually cool February. This allowed the fruit to hang on the vines for longer, resulting in smaller, concentrated berries with intense flavors and natural acidity. We were able to puck for phenolic ripeness, without the increas in sugar sometimes experienced towards the end of the season. This resulted in beautifully flavourful fruit adn excellent  balance in the final product.

in the cellar : The wines individually spent approximately 8 - 12 days in vineyard specific batches for the primary alcoholic fermentation with gentle pump-overs for colour and tannin extraction being performed twice daily. The wines then underwent malolactic fermentation providing complexity and fullness. Certain batches were carefully barrel matured for 14 month in second fill oak barrels and a small un-oaked component was used to provide a fresh and lively character.

find our wines in :

OTHER VINTAGES

Merlot
Merlot
Shiraz
Shiraz
Shiraz
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon