La Motte Pierneef Syrah / Viognier 2012

ageing : The firm tannins in the young wine promise good reward if the wine is aged for 6 to 10 years after the vintage.

ORIGIN

This wine is a blend of 89% Syrah and 11% Viognier. The Syrah component is from Elim (50%), Walker Bay (30%) and Franschhoek (9%) while the Viognier originates from Franschhoek.

VINTAGE
A number of factors caused a lower than average yield for the 2012 vintage. Grapes of especially dry-land vineyards lost weight later in the season. The growing season was fairly cool, except during late January, when the temperature rose above 40 degrees Celsius for three consecutive days, followed, a few days later, by two more days of above 40 degrees. Overall it was a favourable year, with reds showing good colour and intense flavour.

VITICULTURE
The Elim vineyards grow in duplex soils with a high content of ferrocrete (coffee stone), the Walker Bay vineyards in shallow shale and the Franschhoek vineyards in deep, sandy, decomposed granite. Cool conditions in the Elim area resulted in a naturally low yield of about 5 tons/ha. Yield of the Walker Bay vineyards was also low because of dry and windy conditions and shallow shale soils. The Franschhoek Viognier was chosen because of its late ripening and was picked together with the Syrah, for the grapes to be fermented together.

The grapes were hand-sorted and then fermented without stems. Regular pump-overs were performed during fermentation at approximately 25 degrees Celsius.

Maturation:
After about 25 days' maceration, the free-run and press-wine were placed together in 300-litre barrels for 14 months' maturation – 70% of the barrels were new. Subsequently, blending took place and the wine was returned to the barrels for another 4 months, before bottling took place in December 2013.

Only 4 000 cartons (6 x 750 ml) were bottled.