in the vineyard : The Pinotage is made from vines more than 30-years old, grown in Stellenbosch in shallow gravel and clay soils on north-facing slopes. The dryland vineyard, cooled throughout the summer by low night-time temperatures, yields no more than 6 tons per hectare.
Stringent canopy management, overseen by Distell viticulturist Henk van Graan ensured that the grapes, when picked early in February, were physiologically ripe with ideal fruit sugars, acid and tannins.
in the cellar : The juice was left on the skins for 12 days. The pressed juice was then added to the free run juice and after fermentation in steel tanks at 22°C, was transferred to wood where it underwent malolactic fermentation. The wine was aged for 12 months in a combination of mainly second-fill French oak (80%), as well as some new American oak (20%), before bottling in August 2001. Bucholz says the minimal processing in the cellar could result in some sediment.