Laibach Merlot 2009

Name: Laibach Merlot 2009
Brand: LAIBACH
SKU: 29397

Deep dark colour. An explosion of fruit with some blackberry, mocha and bitter dark chocolate. Juicy palate with soft, almost velvety tannins, well supported by some barrel toast. A very well balanced wine with great mouth feel and loads of complexity.

Like all loyal Laibach fans know, we are famous for our Merlot. Consistently in the last decade we have proven that we are one of the top performers with this noble grape variety. The Laibach 2009 is no exception. This wine is from 2 different blocks that really complements each other. The attention to detail from the viticultural team with this variety is amazing. Careful suckering early in spring together with some side shoot removal gives us a well balance "canopy" and yield. We do believe that the right amount of sunshine must be delivered to produce world class Merlot. Too much shaded fruit will give the dreaded "tin pea" pyrazine characters and too exposed fruit can in some vintages give "cooked" jammy flavours.

variety : Merlot [ 100% Merlot ]

winery : Ladybird Vineyards

winemaker : Francois van Zyl

wine of origin : Simonsberg-Stellenbosch

analysis : alc : 14.0 % vol rs : 1.3 g/l pH : 3.73 ta : 5.4 g/l

type : Red style : Dry body : Full wooded

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

ageing : A wine that can be enjoyed young but with enough character and pedigree to last 5 – 10 years after the vintage.

about the harvest: We pick everything by hand, usually starting around the last week of February. Looking at the amount of leaves, we might pick the same block up to 3 times.

in the cellar : The grapes are not all destemmed and crushed on the same day. Some bins will go to cold storage rooms where they will be cooled to - 3°. This will give us more options and building blocks for our final blend. We do have a vigorous sorting regime for this grape. We use a modern sorting table to get rid of all unwanted green herbaceous stems. Although a very slow process (on average 2 tons per hour) we believe this is not negotiable in producing our desired style. Some batches are fermented in small open top fermentation tanks with manual "punch downs" for extraction. Skin contact for Merlot can be from 5 - 40 days before pressing. The wine spends 12 - 14 months in small French oak barrels, produced in Pomerol.

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