A lively colour; ruby red and violet-rimmed. This elegant fragrant wine displays a smokey, spicy and concentrated forest floor nose. Soft, ripe fruit, yet crisp and firm. Good soft tannins and lovely aftertaste.
89/100 in the Wine Spectator of June 30, 2004 and **** in Platter Guides of 2004 and 2005.
ageing :
Drinking well now and will reward two to three years in bottle.
Three different vineyards were used; one on shale, another on Koffieklip in Koelenhof, and the third a vineyard on shale, in Faure, all in the Stellenbosch appellation. All these vineyards are trellised on a four-wire perold system. Drip irrigation is available to combine canopy management with stress management. The average age of the vines is seven years and the quality of fruit should improve every year.
Handpicked grapes were brought in late in February at 24,7º brix. The pH was 3.1 with a titratable acid of 8,1 g/l. Sorting was done in the vineyard, followed by bunch selection in the cellar before crush. Our total production was 6,9 tons per hectare (46hl/ha) and 1470x6x750ml were made.
Sorting was done in the vineyard, followed by bunch selection in the cellar before crush. The grapes were fermented with an innoculated yeast (WE372) and pumped over three times per day. Two separate fermentations were done - a small amount in new oak for seven days and the rest in tanks at 29ºC, and fermentation lasted six days. Extended skin contact lasted a total of 11 days.The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in barrel. 20% new French oak barrels, and 80% second and third fill barrels were used. Most of the barrels are from the cooper Vicard. The wine was racked using only gravitation. This was done for the first time after malolactic fermentation, and again in August. The wine matured in barriques for 11 months.The wine is unfiltered and received only an egg white fining before being bottled.
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