Product Description
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Varieties
100% Syrah
The Vineyard
These vineyards are situated on the farm DeMorgenzon in the Stellenboschkloof. Soils are mostly weathered granite which gives the resultant wines a natural exuberance and youthful vigour. Planted in 2004 the trellised vineyard is managed to ensure natural high acidity and full flavour concentration. The yield was 8 tons per hectare.
The Harvest
The grapes were manually harvested.
2017 was another hot and dry vintage in the Cape. Although the day time temperatures were warm, evening temperatures were much cooler than normal resulting in wines with incredible weight and texture, yet with great acidity and length. The dryness of the season resulted in minimal disease pressure with fruit arriving at the winery in very good condition. The grapes were handpicked and selected in the early morning at between 23.5º and 24.5º Balling.
The Cellar
The grapes were destalked into stainless steel fermentation tanks. A small percentage of bunches were fermented without destalking. Natural fermentation followed with a slight extended maceration on the skins to stabilize the colour and give the wine palate length. Fermentation temperatures were managed between 24°C and 30°C with a combination of punch downs and gentle pump overs to extract colour and flavour from the skins. After fermentation, the wine was pressed off the skins and malolactic fermentation was completed in barrel. The wine spent 10 months in 300L French oak barrels and a further 10 months in 3000L Fourdré barrels. After final blending the wine was transferred to 300 liter barrels for settling, after which the wine was racked and bottled without filtration
Winemaker : Carl van der Merwe
Alcohol content: 14.5%
TA: 4.82 g/l
pH: 3.82
RS: 2.2 g/l
Awards
2017
Gold Medal International Wine Challenge 2020
95 Points Tim Atkin MW’s South Africa Report 2020
93 Points Decanter World Wine Awards 2020
2015
93 Points Tim Atkin MW’s South Africa Report 2017
2014
92 Points Neal Martin for Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate 2016
Top 12 SA Shiraz Challenge
2012
Top 20 Finalist Shiraz SA Challenge 2014
93 points Tim Atkin MW South Africa Report 2014
90 points Stephen Tanzer’s Wine Cellar
Top 10 Nominee Jamie Goode’s South African Wines of 2014
Silver Outstanding IWSC 2014
Silver Decanter 2014
Silver IWC 2014
