about the harvest: Copious rain during the early half of winter and respectable cold units meant the vines underwent decent winter dormancy. A wet yet warmer August resulted in earlier budbreak yet cold evenings kept mildew infections at bay. Cooler nights continued well into spring ensuring an even budbreak and more importantly across all bearers giving better spacing within the eventual canopy. Dry conditions into late spring enabled a perfect flowering and subsequent shoot growth. A dry and warm ummer without excessive heat waves meant that berry set was unhindered and véraison took place 15 days early. Healthy picture-perfect grapes were harvested 2 weeks early resulting in wonderfully intense colours, succulent textures and a core of rich fruit balanced by bright acidity. As a net result 2015 has described as a superlative year
in the cellar : 2015 Kershaw Elgin Pinot NoirVARIETAL INFORMATION: 100% Pinot Noir made from French clones PN667, PN115 and PN113WINE OF ORIGIN: Elgin, Western Cape, South AfricaTOTAL VINEYARD PRODUCTION:0.67 tons selected from 3 tiny parcels of Pinot Noir.HISTORY:In 2012, owner Richard Kershaw MW, establishedRichard Kershaw Wines to create clonally selected, site-specific, cool climate wine paradigms from apposite noble grapes i.e. ones with the ability to produce world-class examples. SA’s coolest wine district, Elgin Valley, reflected these principles benefitting from higher altitude, ocean proximity, specific cloud cover sequencing, high cold units and a large diurnal range, enabling the germane grapes, Chardonnay, Syrah and more recently Pinot Noir, to show a sense of place. VINTAGE: Hand-Picking Dates: 5th – 11th February 2015 Brix at Harvest: 22.68 – 23.84SEASON: Copious rain during the early half of winter and respectable cold units meant the vines underwent decent winter dormancy. A wet yet warmer August resulted in earlier budbreak yet cold evenings kept mildew infections at bay. Cooler nights continued well into spring ensuring an even budbreak and more importantly across all bearers giving better spacing within the eventual canopy. Dry conditions into late spring enabled a perfect flowering and subsequent shoot growth. A dry and warm ummer without excessive heat waves meant that berry set was unhindered and véraison took place 15 days early. Healthy picture-perfect grapes were harvested 2 weeks early resulting in wonderfully intense colours, succulent textures and a core of rich fruit balanced by bright acidity. As a net result 2015 has described as a superlative year. WINEMAKING:The grapes were handpicked into small lug baskets and then manually sorted on a conveyor beforethe stems were removed. The destemmed berries fell onto a vibrating table in order to remove jacks and substandard berries before dropping uncrushed into small 500kg open-toppedfermenters. The grapes underwent a 3-day maceration before spontaneous fermentation began. A gentle pigeage program was charted and the grapes remained on skins for 10-16 days. The wine was then racked to barrel under gravity and the remaining pomace basket-pressed. Malolactic then proceeded in barrel followed by a light sulphuring after which the wine was racked off Malolactic lees and returned to cleaned barrels for an 11-month maturation. No finings were necessary and the wine was simply racked and lightly filtered prior to bottling. A small number of artisanal coopers were selected, all from Burgundy and only French oak was chosen. 10% of the oak was new with the remainder split into 2nd and 3rd fill barrels of 228 litres