Nitida Pinotage 2011

A Lizbreath Salamander wine. All mysterious mushroom and peat with dark forest floor moss and meaty eland biltong. Yields surprisingly gentle sweet violet and penny royal, tart blackcurrants and grated cocoa nutmeg.

Just add choc-chilli venison stew and a fireplace.

variety : Pinotage [ 100% Pinotage ]

winery : Nitida

winemaker : RJ Botha

wine of origin : Durbanville

analysis : alc : 14.21 % vol rs : 1.6 g/l pH : 4.01 ta : 4.7 g/l

type : Red style : Dry body : Full wooded

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

AWARDS

2006 Michelangelo gold; 2005 Michelangelo double gold; 2003 Veritas double gold; 2002 Michelangelo silver medal, Platter 4 stars; 2001 SA Wine Trophy Show silver medal, and Top 100 wine, International Wine Challenge seal of Approval, Fairbairn Capital Trophy Show silver, Platter 4 stars; 1999 Wine magazine 3 star rating; 1998 Veritas silver medal, Wine magazine 3 star rating.

ageing : Drink this wine now. Drinking beautifully now will go 5 years.

in the vineyard : Grapes bought in from one of our neighbours, but only 5 rows, which meant that RJ could keep a close eye on them and ensured that leaf plucking began in early December. This allows more sun exposure to the bunches which gives that lovely riper fruit and will carry through to the wine.

in the cellar : Always a tricky wine to make as you need to press at exactly the right time to avoid that horrible bitterness. This year our open fermenters inside the cellar were full, so RJ put all the pinotage into 2 red wine fermentation tanks and did pump overs every 4 hours! Again more pinot noir in style than cinsault - meaning lighter with less wood to accompany the fine tannin structure.

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