LAM Pinotage 2012

The colour is very light and slightly opaque, reminding one more of Pinot noir than Pinotage. A combination of aromas greets the nose, forever changing - red fruit combined with tobacco-like notes. The palate is very delicate and the tannins extremely fine and elegant. At just 12.5% alcohol the term drinkability is an understatement.t.

variety : Pinotage [ 100% Pinotage ]

winery : Lammershoek Farms & Winery

winemaker : Craig Hawkins

wine of origin : Lammershoek

analysis : alc : 12.5 % vol rs : 1.3 g/l pH : 3.57 ta : 5.2 g/l

type : Red style : Dry wooded

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

ageing : 4 - 5 years

in the vineyard : The grapes come from 20 and 42 year old vineyards that are organically and dry-land farmed. The vineyard is about 250m above sea level on a north-west facing slope. The soil is all decomposed Lammershoek granite. Yield was about 4tons/ha.

about the harvest: 2012 was a very challenging vintage. Cool dry weather allowed a slow even growing season, but this abruptly interrupted by severe heat in early January with no rains for 3-4 months. This made conditions extremely difficult and yields were thus naturally low. Important decisions needed to be made in the vineyard of when to harvest the grapes so as to allow enough material to be extracted into the final wine without allowing any unripe or over ripe flavours due to the heat. Pinotage luckily is an early ripening variety and was brought into the cellar unscathed and in perfect health.

in the cellar : We learnt from our 2010 vintage that less extraction on our Pinotage achieved better results. We fermented about 50% whole bunches with de-stemmed whole berries on top of this for about 7-8 days. The juice was then racked and pressed to old French casks to complete alcoholic and malolactic fermentation. The wine was then racked to large 2000L foudre after 6 months where it aged for a total period of 5 months before being bottled un-fined and unfiltered

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