Spier Frans K Smit 2009

Dark red with youthful edge. This is a rich, opulent and dense wine. Your initial impressions of it include concentrated flavours of ripe dark cherry, cassis, blueberries and sweet spice. The taste shows depth of flavour; there are pencil shavings and cedar at the core, beautifully supported by bright fruit and dense tannins.

Decant for 2 hours at 12°C and let it gradually warm up to 16°C. This wine is perfectly paired with hearty stews and complex, slow cooked foods. This will bring out both the flavour of the food and will soften the wine, allowing it to show more fruit and youth.

variety : Cabernet Sauvignon [ 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 17% Shiraz, 14% Pinotage ]
winery : Spier Wine Farm
winemaker : Frans K Smit
wine of origin : Stellenbosch
analysis : alc : 15.12 % vol  rs : 4.2 g/l  pH : 3.59  ta : 5.6 g/l  
type : Red  style : Dry  
pack : Bottle  size : 0  closure : Cork  

in the vineyard : Average daily temperatures in the winter 10 - 12°C; summer 20 - 25°C. The annual rainfall is 450mm. The vineyards selected for this wine are all planted on vertical trellis systems ranging from 10 – 12 years old at harvest. Very low yields ensure concentrated fruit.

about the harvest: Grapes were hand-harvested, de-stemmed and hand-sorted so that the smaller berries (which have a greater concentration of fruit and tannins) were selected.

in the cellar : Fermentation took place in open-top oak fermenters and the traditional punch-down method was done to extract color. Before racking and blending, the wine was put in new French oak barrels for 31 months to soften the tannin and ensure the optimal balance of fruit and oak integration. No fining was done and there was as little human interference as possible so that the wine truly expresses both its terroir and the time it has spent in the barrel.

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OTHER VINTAGES

Cabernet Sauvignon
Shiraz
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon
Merlot
Merlot