A purple tint on the rim with delicious flavours of ripe strawberry and rich red cherry. Produced in an early drinking style with a touch of wood and a soft smooth finish.
Enjoy now with roast beef, guinea fowl, roast chicken, stews, lamb, pizza and pasta. Serve at 12° - 14°C.
in the vineyard : Incredibly healthy grapes of excellent quality to produce outstanding wines - this is how the 2006 vintage will be remembered. Again the season started with very little winter rainfall in Robertson, but this time around, enough rain fell in the Brandvleidam catchment area to ensure sufficient water supply. Early and even budbreak occurred and due to lots of wind and cooler growing season only moderate vineyard vigour was achieved. The prevailing strong wind induced stress on the grapevines which had a positive effect on wine quality, as it lead to smaller, looser bunches with fewer, smaller and more concentrated berries.
The 2006 crop was a little bigger than 2005, but is still smaller than an average crop. This is mainly due to the smaller, looser bunches with smaller berries. Optimum ripeness was reached at lower sugar levels due to the cooler ripening period. Especially the night temperatures were lower than normal. This coupled with the smaller berries ensured excellent red wine colours and quality. It also impacted positively on white wine quality.
Vines are grown in deep cool alluvial soil that is rich in lime. The average annual rainfall of 280mm is supplemented by controlled drip irrigation from the Breede River.
2006 will be a vintage to be remembered.
Vineyards
There is currently only one Pinot Noir vineyard from which grapes are sourced for the Robertson Winery Pinot Noir. This vineyard is planted on colluvial soil with a good water holding capacity. The above-mentioned terroir is one of the most suitable for growing high quality Pinot Noir in the whole of the Robertson Wine Valley. Lots of effort goes into allowing the correct number of buds during pruning. This Pinot Noir vineyard is spur pruned to one bud spurs with a reasonably wide spacing to help counter the inherent fruitfulness of the cultivar. Correct canopy management combined with a deficit irrigation strategy and quite severe green harvesting after véraison are all management tools used in this vineyard to ensure suitable quality grapes. Harvesting the grapes at optimum ripeness is also essential for the best quality wine.