variety : Pinotage [ 100% Pinotage ]
winemaker : Philip Jordaan & Shawn Thompson
wine of origin : Breede River
analysis : alc : 8.88 % vol rs : 71.2 g/l pH : 3.37 ta : 6.4 g/l
type : Rose style : Sweet
pack : Bottle closure : Screwcap
in the vineyard : Background
Du Toitskloof Wine Cellar (DTK) was established by six wine farmers as a co-operative winery in 1962. Today it has 22 members whose vineyards all lie within a 10 km radius of the cellar. It is located near the town of Rawsonville in the Breede River Valley, at the entrance to the Du Toitskloof Mountain Pass. The stony soils of the area are ideally suited to grape growing. DTK's award-winning wines are known for their excellent quality at affordable prices, and during the last five years it has been rated the South African cellar offering the best value by WINE magazine, three times. The cellar produces some 10 million litres of wine a year from 13 500 tons of grapes, of which 60% is white and 40%, red. Its major white cultivar is Sauvignon blanc, followed by Chardonnay, Chenin blanc and Semillon. The main red cultivars are Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Merlot and Pinotage.
In the Vineyards
Made from Pinotage grapes, all the grapes came from within 5 km of the Du Toitskloof cellar. The vines, grafted on to Richter 99, 110 and 114 rootstock, are grown in alluvial soils to achieve more fruity vines. Based on soil moisture levels as measured by neutron hydrometers in the vineyards, controlled irrigation is applied, thereby also ensuring small berries with an excellent skin to fruit ratio providing an intense colour and flavour spectrum. Grapes harvested from both trellised and bush vine vineyards and were picked when they reached optimum physiological ripeness.
in the cellar : After crushing and destemming the grapes were cold soaked at 12° - 15° C for 48 hours to extract maximum flavour. Only the free-run juice was then extracted and allowed to settle under reductive conditions. After settling the juice was cooled down to -4° C and kept at that temperature for three weeks until all excess water in the juice was frozen. This practice further increase the flavour concentration and the sugar level of the juice. The juice was then pumped from the cold tanks to the fermentation tanks where the temperature increases naturally to 8° - 10° C. The juice is then inoculate with select yeast strains. After the fermentation period of three weeks the wine was fined, filtered, cold stabilized and blended before bottling.