Durbanville Hills Tangram Red Blend 2013

Colour: Dark ruby red
Aroma: Sweet wood spice lingers beautifully with ripe dark fruit, fennel, dark chocolate and cinnamon
Taste: Full bodied and rich with Christmas fruit cake, sweet spice and well integrated wood and soft tannins leading to a lingering aftertaste

For optimum enjoyment, decant at least one hour before consumption and serve at 15°C - 18 °C.

variety : Cabernet Sauvignon [ 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot, 2% Malbec ]
winemaker : Wilhelm Coetzee, Martin Moore & Kobus Gerber
wine of origin : Durbanville
analysis : alc : 14.7 % vol  rs : 3.25 g/l  pH : 3.65  ta : 5.93 g/l  
type : Red  style : 0  body : Full  taste : Fruity   wooded
pack : Bottle  size : 750ml  closure : Cork  

ageing : If stored in optimal conditions, this wine can be cellared for at least a decade.

The Tangram is a Chinese geometrical puzzle consisting of five triangles, a square and a rhomboid, which can be arranged to make various forms and pictures to tell a story.

To master the Tangram, one has to look at the whole puzzle to understand and form the myriad of images to be shaped.

A noble blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec was created. This wine rested in French oak barrels for 24 months and is an expression of an illustrious cool climate wine.

Our Tangram is skillfully crafted from the following 7 elements:
EARTH:
• Ancient fertile soils of varying altitudes and slopes provide a variety of micro climates.
• A unique topography that opens up to Table Mountain and Table Bay plays a huge factor in influencing the quality of grapes.

WIND:
• Cold south easterly and south westerly winds inhibit the development of diseases and keep the vineyards healthy.
• The cold winds also ensure a long, slow ripening of rapes resulting in concentrated flavours.

FIRE:
• The sun, a burning celestial being, imparts growth through her warm rays enhancing the grapes’ ripening with balance and structure.
• Cape Town enjoys almost a thousand more hours of sunlight than the great wine producing cities of Santiago, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Sydney
and Auckland.
• Although a cool climate area due to the proximity of the ocean, the area enjoys longer periods of sunlight due to the absence of high mountains.
• The longer periods of sunlight ensure proper ripeness with the enhanced balance and structure.

WATER:
• Rainfall is relatively low, around 400mm per year, but the physical and chemical nature of the soils are able to absorb and retain water.
• This allows for deep root development so that the stored water is efficiently utilized, bringing forth stable growth conditions, essential for
outstanding and sustainable wine.
• Controlled irrigation further ensures optimal growth conditions.
• The nearby ocean water which semi-surrounds the ward, stabilises temperatures and moderates the summer heat, thereby creating the perfect
conditions for cultivating noble grape varieties.

OUR THREE (3) DEDICATED AND PASSIONATE CRAFTERS: Wilhelm Coetzee; Martin Moore & Kobus Gerber.
• Over 80 years of wine making experience.

Just like the Tangram puzzle, the greatness of these blends lies in how the different pieces come together in artful and interesting ways.

in the vineyard : Vintage 2013:
The winter preceding the 2013 vintage was particularly wet with prolonged winter conditions continuing well into September. Bud burst was delayed because of these conditions, but an extremely warm and dry December ensured that the red varieties ripened as usual.

In the Vineyards
The Cabernet Sauvignon was selected from a block planted in 1998 on a fairly low and warm southerly slope which opens up towards the ocean allowing the cooler evening air to drench the vineyards after the heat of the day. Planted on a north-western slope near the valley floor where the downward flowing air creates a unique climatic condition, the Merlot was selected from a block planted in 1999 on the opposing foothill facing the Cabernet Sauvignon. The vineyard blocks identified for the Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec components all came from vineyards planted in 1999 in the same radius on the warmer northern slopes of the valley.

Satellite technology was used to identify the premium spots in each block. Only grapes from these spots were harvested and used to make this wine. To ensure gentle handling of the grapes during harvest, the winemakers hand-selected the dedicated team that picked the grapes. The grapes were meticulously sorted by an automated sorting table that does berry-by-berry selection to ensure only the best grapes were selected from each cultivar.

in the cellar : In the Cellar
 Due to the small volumes of the Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot the berries were pumped directly to 1000 litre tubs to allow for open-top fermentation with manual punch-downs. The Malbec was made in similar fashion in open top 500 liter barrels. This method produces softer tannins, better extraction of flavours and overall complexity. Pressing was done in a small basket press from where the wine was transferred to the maturation cellar.

Maturation
The winemakers selected new French oak with a tight grain to allow for slow extraction of flavours from the wood. Each varietal was matured separately for two years after which only the best barrels of each was identified for the final blend. The winemakers spent three days creating numerous blends, each time only making the slightest change in the composition of the blends. Their aim was to find that precise moment when the greatness of each individual component would harmoniously blend together. The wine was left to mature for a further year in the bottle.

find our wines in :

OTHER VINTAGES

Cabernet Sauvignon
Cabernet Sauvignon