in the vineyard : Height above sea level: Average of about 300m above sea level
Type of soil: Duplex soils
Slopes: Westerly facing slopes
Age of vine: 20 years, 1x3m plant width = 3333 vines/ha
Trellising system: Bush vine, dryland vineyard; remove green bunches after veraison
in the cellar : Added sulphur to a total of 50mg/l at crusher, and lifted the total acid to 7 g/l. From here the pulp was pumped into an open fermenter, where a period of 48 hour cold maceration at 15ºC was given prior to fermentation. Other additions before and during fermentation: Total of 20g/hl of VR Supra tannins and a total of 0.6 g/l of D.A.P.
Yeast used: NT50 of Anchor Yeast at a dosage of 0.25 g/l. Reasons for using this yeast culture: It is suited to ferment at high sugar levels and complete fermentation at high alcohol levels. This strain foams quite a bit, so it keeps the cake wet in between punching through. The juice was aerated only once at the beginning of fermentation whereafter the skins were punched through 4X daily for 30 minutes each at 6 hour intervals.
Fermentation temperature: Median of 27ºC. Pressed at 5ºB. Free run and press juice, to a pressure of 0.6 Bar, were blended together and rest were kept apart. Malolactic fermentation completed in barrels.
Fourteen months in 25% new American oak barrels and 50% in new French oak barrels. Racked twice, fined with egg allumine. filtered and bottled. Aged for 6 months in bottle before release.