in the vineyard : Origin: Paarl, Coastal Region
Climate: Winter Rainfall approximately 600mm per annum. The estate is situated along the south western slopes of Paarl Mountain at an altitude of between 140 and 250 meters and benefits from cooling summer breezes from the Atlantic Ocean.
Irrigation: Limited irrigation of between 50 and 100mm is applied during drier summers in order to allow for optimum development and ripening of grapes.
Soils: Vary from decomposed granites to well drained sandy loam with gravel underlays.
Coopers: Sylvain, Schahinger, Trust & Nadalie
Age of Vines: 4 - 11 years
Vines per hectare: 3,000
Soil: Sandy loam and decomposed granite
Trellising: Bush vines
Yield: 6 – 8 tons per hectare
about the harvest: Grapes were harvested at 24,5°B, destemmed and transferred to open fermentation tanks.
in the cellar : After the addition of selected yeasts, the juice, together with the skins, were allowed to ferment at controlled temperatures of 25C and 28C. During fermentation, skins that tend to rise to the top were regularly pushed down to cool the cap and to optimise flavour and colour extraction. At 5B, juice was drained from the skins and the fermentation allowed to continue in closed tanks. Any juice remaining in the skins were recovered with the use of a gentle tank press. After allowing for malolactic fermentation to complete, the wine was racked from the lees and transferred to 225 litre oak barrels for maturation.
Barrel maturation: 12 months
Type of Wood: American Oak 2nd & 3rd fill
Bottling date: 3 October 2007