Kleine Zalze Cellar Selection Pinotage 2018

As always this is a very elegant expression of Pinotage. The fruit expression is of wild berries and show a lot of juicy ripe fruit on the palate with lovely floral notes on the finish.

This wine is delightful on its own but can be successfully paired with lovely roast chicken or even a light Thai curry!!

variety : Pinotage [ 100% Pinotage ]
winemaker : RJ Botha
wine of origin : Coastal Region
analysis : alc : 14.0 % vol  rs : 3.0 g/l  pH : 3.76  ta : 4.9 g/l  
type : Red  style : Dry  taste : Fruity   wooded
pack : Bottle  size : 750ml  closure : Cork  

ageing : The elegant tannin structure will allow the wine to mature well over the next 5-8 years.

in the vineyard : The grapes for this blend come primarily from the Stellenbosch area and are usually augmented with selected parcels from other regions. 2018 was yet again a very dry season and a relatively warm winter. This posed a few problems that the winemaking team had to manage carefully in the winery and at blending. That said, the dry conditions meant that the fruit was exceptionally healthy and with careful viticulture we still managed to obtain even ripening of the grapes and very good physiological ripeness at harvest.

in the cellar : After picking, the grapes were destemmed only and transferred to tank for “whole-berry” fermentation. Half of the wine was fermented in open cement tanks with regular punch downs and pump overs to extract tannin and colour. The remaining half was fermented in closed stainless steel tank and pumped over every 8 hours. The wines were pressed before complete alcoholic fermentation to ensure soft tannins and avoid any over extraction. The wine was matured in 2nd and 3rd fill barrels for 12 months.

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