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Babylon's Peak Syrah/Carignan 2009

A combination of ripe berry flavours and dark fruit on the nose and you’ll also notice hints of spices. The oak flavours are elegant and after the fruit you’ll also find chocolate and cigar flavours. On the palate the wine is soft, well balanced with good length on the middle palate and after taste.

Light meat dishes. Rich and creamy pasta.
variety : Shiraz [ 70% Shiraz, 30% Carignan ]
winemaker : Stephan Basson
wine of origin : Swartland
analysis : alc : 14.0 % vol  rs : 4.3 g/l  pH : 3.9  ta : 5.5 g/l  
type : Red  style : Dry  body : Medium   wooded
pack : Bottle  closure : Cork  
in the vineyard : Terroir
All the vines are planted on weathered granite slopes of the Paardeberg Mountain. This area has a typical Mediterranean climate, with winter rainfall of 500-700mm per year. The summers are quite dry with very high day temperatures (between 24 - 38° C) and lower night temperatures of between 8° and 15°C. Most wines from this area have a typical mineral character – the result from our granite soils.

Vineyards
The vineyards in this region are mostly dry land which give very small berries and this relates to juice with high concentration in flavour and colour. Most of the vineyards are bush vines, but some of the cultivars that easily gets sunburn and which are planted on lighter soils, are normally trellised to be higher from the soil and the reflection of the sunlight. Production is limited to about 5 - 7 tons per ha.

Shiraz:
The Shiraz vines are 16 years old, with drip irrigation and trellised according the Perold trellising system. Irrigation is carefully monitored by probes in the vineyard and the vineyard produce approximately 6 tons/ha.
Carignan:
This is very big dry-land bush vines which are more than 27 years old. The vineyard produces approximately 5 tons per hectare and there are only limited quantities of this variety available in South Africa.
about the harvest: Grapes were harvested by hand in small picking crates

in the cellar : After harvesting the grapes were left in a cold room at 5°C for 24 hours. After destemming and crushing, the grapes were given cold maceration for 48 hours, before fermentation started in traditional open fermenters. During fermentation the wine was only pumped over, to work as soft as possible on the skins – no punch downs was done. Lots of air was provided to the wine during the pump-over-process to assure the stability of the colour and flavours. The malolactic fermentation was done in oak barrels. Only French oak barrels were used for maturation for a minimum of 12 months.
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OTHER VINTAGES

Babylon's Peak Syrah/Carignan 2009
Shiraz
Babylon's Peak Syrah/Carignan 2007
Shiraz