in the vineyard : The grapes grow on high potential decomposed granite, Hutton soils, about 210 meters above sea level. This enables the grapes to ripened slowly, under perfect macro-climatic conditions. Rich in nutrients and moisture, these soils let the vines grows under conditions, that efficiently delivers
green healthy leaves , until the day of picking. This is essential for our Pinotage fruit to reach high anthocyanin flavour-levels, with soft skin and pip
ripeness. The reason for this optimum ripe fruit tannins, is because the bunches are exposed twice a day to the direct sunlight, due to the northwest
to southwest vineyard planting row direction.
in the cellar : Harvested early in the morning the grapes were hand-selected and sorted, so that only the healthiest grapes were destemmed, followed by a cold
skin-maceration time of two days. This enable us to reach an optimum colour extraction, before fermentation. With the cool fermentation temperatures, consistent fermenting intervals were created. The Pinotage juice then optimised its pure typical powerful layers of dark prune and spicy fruit. During the delestage(racking)-proses, extraction were obtained and pumpovers remained, until the perfect balance between colour and grape fruit tannin extraction were achieved. The wine was racked into French oak Barrels and aged for 14 months in 30% first fill and 70% older tight grain barrels.