Hill&Dale Merlot 2014

Colour: Deep, intense and vibrant ruby.
Bouquet: Lively nose with tones of cherries, raspberries and cranberries backed up by subtle undertones of herbaceous tealeaves. Fruit-forward with very little oaking in play.
Taste: Medium to full-bodied, this youthful and invigorating red is wonderfully balanced and imminently drinkable with its gentle tannins, sweet fruit-flavours and good length.

Wonderful on its own but also pairs well with simple dishes like burgers with rocket, rustic pizzas with caramelized onions, charcuterie platters and sweet-glazed grilled spareribs.

variety : Merlot [ 100% Merlot ]

winery : Hill and Dale

winemaker : Guy Webber & Natalee Botha

wine of origin : Stellenbosch

analysis : alc : 13.27 % vol rs : 2.7 g/l pH : 3.56 ta : 5.7 g/l va : 0.60 g/l

type : Red style : Dry body : Medium taste : Fruity wooded

pack : Bottle size : 0 closure : Cork

ageing :

Extremely friendly in its youth the wine should gain in complexity to an age of three to five years.

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.

in the vineyard :

The vineyards, planted between 1987 and 1993, are situated on gentle slopes facing north-east. They grow from 160m to 230m above sea level in marginal soils of decomposed granite and Table Mountain sandstone. The vines are all grafted onto nematode-resistant rootstocks and trellised on five-wire fence systems. The 2014 vintage will go down in history as having been one of the largest vintages ever for the Stellenbosch region. Beautifully-cold and wet winter months and an above-average annual rainfall resulted in almost perfect growing conditions for the vines and this resulted in an overall yield of 8.2 tonnes per hectare.

about the harvest:

The grapes were harvested from 4 to 31 March 2014 at around 22,2° Balling.

in the cellar :

After destalking and crushing, the mash was fermented in stainless steel tanks at between 22o and 24°C before being transferred to a combination of oak barrels and vats where the wine matured for 16 months.

The wine was bottled on 13 October 2015 with the total production being 6 917 cases (12 x 750ml).

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