This full-bodied wine offers a luscious bouquet of peaches, apricots and hazelnuts, enhanced by a botrytis character. The Muscat tends to dominate, providing a floral, raisiny character.
Best served chilled either on its own or with different cheeses and nuts. A perfect companion to any dessert.
variety : Muscat dAlexandrie [ 80% Muscat d'Alexandrie, 20% Chenin Blanc ]
winemaker : Shawn Thomson, Chris Geldenhuys & Willie Stofberg
wine of origin : Western Cape
analysis : alc : 10.75 % vol rs : 107.4 g/l pH : 3.37 ta : 7.2 g/l so2 : 117 mg/l fso2 : 23 mg/l
type : Dessert style : Sticky body : Full taste : Fruity
pack : Bottle size : 0 closure : Cork
in the vineyard : Background
Du Toitskloof Wine Cellar (DTK) was established by six wine farmers as a cooperative 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
TThe grapes - Muscat d’Alexandrie and Chenin Blanc - were all harvested from very old bush vines growing in slightly clayey soil on the farm Goudyn. The grapes were left on the vines, which produce a very low yield, until they had become quite raisiny, with a high concentration of sugar.
in the cellar : After harvesting the grapes were crushed whereafter the mash was pumped to rotor tanks where it was kept for two days at 10° to 13° C to enhance flavour extraction. After skin contact, the juice was extracted and the skins pressed. Of the press-juice 20% was added to the free-run juice to provide extra body. The juice was allowed to settle over a period of 4 days whereafter it was inoculated with a selected yeast strain. At about 14% alcohol the yeast cells died and fermentation stopped, leaving a natural residual sugar of about 90 g/l. The wine was then protein- and cold-stabilised, filtered and bottled.