The wine started out opaque with a vivid, purple rim and then changed to a deep ruby wine, with wonderful intensity of colour. A nose of great depth, but at this stage tight-knit. Allow a few minutes in the glass; very attractive bouquet of violets and cedary cigar box notes. The silky tannins are not apparent at first, the rich plummy coffee palate seems chunky and big, but elegant at the same time. The long finish is firmed up by very ripe tannins, culminating in a truly classic Cabernet.
The 2000 vintage of Rudera Cabernet Sauvignon scored 90+/100 in Robert Parker, Jr's 'The Wine Advocate' Issue 145 and 90/100 in Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar Issue 107. This was followed by a **** rating in the April 2003 issue of Wine Magazine. Rudera Cabernet also received a gold medal at the 2002 Michelangelo International Wine Awards and ****(*) in The Platter Guide 2004.
ageing :
Drinking well now if allowed time in the glass, but will reward, if properly cellared, for the next decade.
The fruit of two vineyards, one on shale in Koelenhof, the other on weathered sandstone on the Banhoek side of Helshoogte, went into the Cabernet. Both vineyards are trellised on a four wire perold system. Drip irrigation is available to combine canopy management with stress management. The average age of the vines is eight years, and the quality of fruit should improve every year.
Handpicked grapes were brought in to the cellar on 21 and 22 February at 25,5º brix. The pH was 3.4, with a titratable acid of 7,8 g/l. Sorting was done in the vineyard followed by berry selection in the cellar before crush. Our total production was 4,8 tons per hectare (33hl/ha) and only 392x6x750ml, plus a few 3-litre bottles were made.
Sorting was done in the vineyard, followed by berry selection in the cellar before crush. The grapes were fermented with an innoculated yeast (WE372) and pumped over three times per day. Fermentation was at 31ºC and lasted five days. Extended skin contact lasted a total of 18 days. The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in barrel. Only new French oak barrels were used, four Vicard Prestige, two Taransaud and two Saury barrels. The wine was racked using only gravitation. This was done for the first time after malolactic fermentation, and again three months later. The wine matured in barriques for 23 months.The wine is unfiltered and received only an egg white fining before being bottled.
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