Dombeya Boulder Road Shiraz 2011

The wine has a lively purple red colour with lifted flavor of violets, rose water, and white pepper. The palate is soft and structured and reminds of a classic Rhône style Shiraz.

variety : Shiraz [ 95% Shiraz, 5% Mourvèdre ]

winery : Haskell Vineyards

winemaker : Rianie Strydom

wine of origin : Stellenbosch

analysis : alc : 13.5 % vol rs : 2.3 g/l pH : 3.69 ta : 6.1 g/l

type : Red

pack : 0 size : 0 closure : 0

Winemaker's comments:
Cooler season with rainfall late February slowed down the ripening of the grapes and favoured the flavour retention in the early stages of ripening. We harvested just in time to prevent rotting due to the late rains. This produced wines with lower alcohols and exceptionally good fruit expression.

in the vineyard : The soil consists of 10% clay with the balance medium sand to coarse gravel on a north-western slope for 2 of the blocks. The row direction is 45° west of north. Block 4 is on a flatter piece with substantial rocks. Block 8, our only south facing block, is planted in coarse gravel. Water management is done by drip irrigation.

about the harvest: All the grapes were harvested by hand.

in the cellar : Two of the 3 vineyards (clone SH22B on 101-14) were in their fourth vintage and bearing much more fruit, a third vineyard (the only south facing, clone SH9 on 101-14) was now in its third year of produciton and almost at full production. The 3 vineyards were vinified and kept separate for the entire maturation period for us to monitor the potential of each vineyard for the future path it will go. We fermented with Anchor 372 yeast which brings out the red fruit and pepper flavour, emphasizing the lovely flavour and structure we get from our soil.

The grapes were crushed and immediately set to fermentation. Pump-overs 4 times a day with punch downs. Total time on skins was 10 days. After pressing, the older vineyards received 30% new oak with the balance third fill for malo-lactic. The younger vineyards did their malo-lactic in 2nd fill barrels and 10% new oak. During maturation of 12 months the wines were racked once after malo-lactic and once thereafter. Small portion (5%) of 2011 Mourvedre was blended in before bottling in 2012.

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