Hill&Dale Pinotage 2012

Colour: Brilliant ruby with a slight crimson rim.
Bouquet: Wonderful complexity of sweet tobacco and cherry against a background of spicy cinnamon and cedar.
Taste: This vintage shows more elegance and subtlety than robustness and volume with its creamy friendliness on the mid-palate and soft, dry finish clearly showing its class.

This food-friendly, versatile wine will best complement thinly-carved roasts with thyme, Portuguese-styled chicken livers, steak and kidney pie and wholesome Sheppard's pie. Traditional bobotie will also be a winner.

variety : Pinotage [ Pinotage with a touch of Shiraz ]

winery : Hill and Dale

winemaker : Guy Webber assisted by Nataleé Botha

wine of origin : Stellenbosch

analysis : alc : 14.03 % vol rs : 2.1 g/l pH : 3.57 ta : 5.5 g/l va : 0.68 g/l so2 : 69 mg/l

type : Red style : Dry body : Soft wooded

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

ageing : Possibly best at an age of around three to five years but should last well into double digits.

in the vineyard : Background
Stellenzicht's Hill&Dale label offers a range of accessibly-styled wines with a New World character for international appeal, created by award-winning winemaker Guy Webber.

Grapes for the Hill&Dale wines are selected from vineyards within the Stellenbosch region. Extensive vineyard management programmes are in place for each of the vineyards from which the fruit is selected. All aspects of the process are strictly governed so as to comply with not only the standards set for the Integrated Production of Wine (IPW) system, but also with the quality standards set for HACCP and the BRC (British Retail Consortium).

The name for the range was derived from Stellenzicht's Hillandale farm, located just outside the town of Stellenbosch. The logo on the label depicts an oak tree leaf, synonymous with the historic university town.

Vineyards
Grapes were sourced from mostly trellised vineyards established in soils of granitic origin. Pinotage is an early ripening variety which thrives on full sunlight and slightly warmer temperatures. The 2012 vintage was another excellent one for Pinotage despite both rainfall and summer temperatures being generally lower than the average. This suited the vines perfectly and, as a result of a slightly longer hang-time, produced fruit of excellent quality.

about the harvest: The grapes were harvested mechanically on 2 and 3 February, at an average of 24.8° Balling.

in the cellar : Skin contact was kept to a minimum with the skins being separated as soon as colour extraction was optimal. Using selected yeast strains, fermentation took place in closed horizontal stainless-steel tanks at between 26° and 28°C.

After the wine had been racked, malolactic fermentation took place spontaneously. The wine was matured in a combination of French, Eastern European and American oak for an average of 10 months before being blended with a touch of Shiraz to add complexity.

The wine was bottled on 30 May 2013. Just over 8 000 cases of 12 x 750ml bottles were produced.

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