Flagstone Poetry Collection 2000
The Poetry Collection Pinot Noir is the collection of our very best barrel(s) every year. In some years we have chosen eight barrels for this honour, in some only one. Every year the bottle will carry, as its label, a different poem written by a different poet. This poem will be chosen by South Africa’s unofficial Poet Laureate, Stephen Watson. The subject will always be Pinot Noir and the prize will be a few cases of this precious and rare wine.
variety : Pinot Noir [ 100% Pinot Noir ]
winemaker : Bruce Jack
wine of origin : Coastal
analysis : alc : 13.5 % vol
type : Red style : Dry body : Full taste : Fragrant wooded
pack : Bottle closure : Cork
AWARDS
Fairbairn Capital Trophy Wine Show 2003 - Silver
Veritas 2002 - Silver
The South African Trophy Wine Show 2002 - Bronze
Veritas 2001 - Gold
in the vineyard : Pinot Noir is like poetry in many ways. It can be so brilliant it changes the way you see the world and it can be really very bad. Pinot Noir is planted throughout the Western Cape, but in very small quantities, mostly because it has a mind of its own in the vineyard and cellar. Even with our own Pinot Noir, we will always purchase in some of our grapes from other vineyards, dotted high on mountains or hidden in secluded kloofs.
We want to use Pinot Noir as a vehicle for the sun-boosted concentration of flavour our individual vineyard meso-climates and soil types offer. We also try to ‘listen’ very carefully to the vineyards so that they can tell us when it is the perfect time to pick. We do this by tasting berries in the vineyards every day, sometimes twice a day, pushing the vines to ripen past the safety zone.
about the harvest: We lavish an extraordinary amount of time, love and effort on Pinot Noir at Flagstone. We pick our vines, bunch by bunch, often leaving certain bunches on a single vine for a later pass through the vineyard. We will pick a vineyard over weeks if necessary, focusing on capturing rich and very ripe, site-specific aromas and flavours.
in the cellar : In the cellar, however, we often feel it is the fruit that is dictating to us. It is a strange feeling to wake up in a terrifying cold sweat because you’ve neglected to taste and smell a raging Pinot Noir ferment in the previous three hours. However, while difficult and demanding in the cellar, Pinot Noir can also be the most rewarding wine to make. If treated carefully, with lots of love and understanding Pinot Noir repays your efforts once in the bottle.