KWV The Mentors Petit Verdot 2008

This deep red wine, with its tinges of purple, displays hints of the intense flavour and concentration to follow. A variety of fruits, such as cherry and blackberry flavours live in harmony with herbal, floral, mocha, vanilla and chocolate notes. The wine is rich and smooth with an intense, yet smooth, tannin structure. The lingering aftertaste completes this complex wine.

Savour on its own or enjoy with fillet or tender veal dishes.

variety : Petit Verdot [ 100% Petit Verdot ]

winery : The Mentors

winemaker : The Winemaking Team

wine of origin : Coastal Region

analysis : alc : 13.76 % vol rs : 2.67 g/l pH : 3.44 ta : 6.0 g/l

type : Red body : Full wooded

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

ageing : Cellaring Potential
Enjoy now, but cellaring potential of 8 - 10 years from vintage.

in the vineyard : Vineyards
Grondves, Stellenbosch.

Treatment in Vineyard
This vineyard is planted on a shale slope on the foothills of the Stellenbosch Mountains. A distinguishing aspect of this vineyard is that it grows very slowly through the season and has just enough growth to ripen the crop to the desired point. Yields are low and concentration of flavours is achieved due to the exceptional vine balance. Tempered by south-easterly winds during the growing season, this vineyard has great character which is reflected in the wine.

Vintage Conditions
2008 has been an excellent vintage for both red and white wines and wines will continue to develop to their full cellaring potential.

about the harvest: Cool, wet weather during the 2007 winter and excessive rain in the first two months of 2008 led to a later than usual start to the 2008 harvest. This resulted in slow ripening conditions with small berries, concentrated flavours and slow sugar and flavour development. This also led to an ideal distribution between red and white grapes being harvested.

Harvest Date: Middle of March

Balling at Harvest: 25.2° Balling

in the cellar : Wine Making
The grapes were harvested optimally ripe and were hand sorted in the cellar to ensure that only the best fruit is used for fermentation. After 2 days of cold maceration the juice was inoculated with a selected yeast strain followed by alcoholic fermentation that lasted approximately 6 days. During that time the wine was pumped over every 6 hours. Post alcoholic fermentation wine was racked off the skins, settled and transferred into barrels. Malolactic fermentation lasted 3 weeks in the barrel. The wine was racked and put back into the barrel for maturation. During the 18 months in barrel, the wine was racked twice.

Maturation: 16 months in 70% new French oak barrels.

Total production: 2 130 bottles.

Bottling date: December 2009.

email the winery

email this page

find our wines in :