Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2014

A wine that shows typical Stellenbosch density on both the bouquet and the palate. Aromas of black cherry, cassis and cigar-box opens up with dark fruit on the palate, complemented by full yet fine-grained tannins. A full, rich wine that maintains elegance typical to Kleine Zalze wines.

A fantastic accompaniment to most meat dishes.

variety : Cabernet Sauvignon [ 100% Cabernet Sauvignon ]
winemaker : RJ Botha
wine of origin : Stellenbosch
analysis : alc : 14.0 % vol  rs : 3.6 g/l  pH : 3.40  ta : 6.3 g/l  
type : Red  style : Dry  body : Full   wooded
pack : Bottle  size : 750ml  closure : Cork  

ageing : Will also reward careful cellaring for at least ten years.

in the vineyard : The majority of the fruit for this wine came from our own farm and the balance from a few selected sites on the slopes of the Helderberg Mountain. We had enough rain and cold units in the winter of 2013 which led to late and even budding. The growing season was good and temperatures remained modest for the best part. We did however, get quite a bit of rain during the lead up to harvest which led to challenging circumstance on harvest scheduling. We escaped the worst of the trouble because of good canopy management. With the late rains we had an extended ripening period where disease pressure was not an issue.

about the harvest: The various blocks were harvested at optimum ripeness..

in the cellar : The various grapes were vinified separately. After careful selection in the vineyard the grapes were hand sorted at the winery ensuring only the best fruit was vinified. After de-stemming the grapes were fermented in a combination of stainless-steel tanks and traditional open-top fermenters. We used a combination of “punch down” and “pump over” at different stages in fermentation and believe we need to extract all the good flavours and tannins at the beginning of fermentation. We end the process with only one pump over per day not to over extract the wine. After primary fermentation the grapes were gently pressed and transferred to French oak barrels (40% new, 30% second-fill and 30 % third-fill) for 24 months before final blending took place.

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