in the vineyard : OK, so perhaps you’ve noticed we have a few strongly held views on Pinot Noir. For starters we don’t believe there is any defendable scientific reason Pinot Noir needs a cold, wet climate to produce great wine. Secondly we like the BK5 selection – now uniquely South African. Thirdly, Pinot Noir grapes can talk. All grapes talk to some degree, depending on how they have been treated, but Pinot Noir is the easiest to hear and the most difficult to understand. But, before we get too esterteric: This wine is only ever made from a single vineyard on the upper slopes of the Kuils River hills, called “The Mean Old Bastard Block†because the only way you can get any co-operation from this vineyard is if you ask hardly anything of it at all. We have tried to encourage a bit more fruit from its clutches, but learnt our lesson. We secure about 3 tons per hectare every year. It is also the only tiny patch of Pinot Noir I know of with 5 different soil types.
The wine changes dramatically from vintage to vintage depending on the specific weather conditions during the ripening period. Temperature and rainfall during the winter months also play a role. Some years there is explosive cherry and mocha, some years there is taciturn stewed plum and cloves. This is a grumpy vineyard on the edge. But when the weather is kind and we get a bit of rain at the right time, and we’ve only asked The Grumpy Old Bastard for a few bunches per vine, this block reveals a twinkling treasure trove of succulent, sweet, decadent Pinot Noir berries.
in the cellar : BK5 refers to the clone (nursery selection) from Switzerland which was originally used for sparkling wine. In good years, from good vineyard sites, with ruthless crop thinning, it will produce super still wines and a style of Pinot Noir that is unique to the Cape.
The grapes were picked very ripe and cold soaked under inert gas at 5°C. 50% was inoculated, the remainder underwent natural fermentation in open top fermenters with manual punch-downs. The wine was then transferred to 100% new Burgundy hogheads during primary fermentation and allowed through malo-lactic fermentation in barrel. Yeast lees were stirred weekly. We bottled in July 1999 with only rough pad filtration.