Spier Frans K Smit Red 2018

Beautiful, perfumed notes of cherry, blackberry, and blackcurrant are complemented by herbal fynbos and graphite. The youthful palate offers abundant fruit and smooth, dense tannins that will improve with age, showcasing a great balance of concentration and finesse.

Appearance: Deep ruby red, with a youthful ruby rim.

This wine loves a premium cut of free-range beef, especially sirloin, rump or ribeye. However, it’s also a wine that wants to be enjoyed on its own. Pour a glass after dinner – savouring it offers a complete experience.

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variety : Cabernet Sauvignon [ 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, 10% Petit Verdot, 8% Cabernet Franc ]

winery : Spier Wine Farm

winemaker : Frans K Smit

wine of origin : Stellenbosch

analysis : alc : 14.5 % vol rs : 2.6 g/l pH : 3.67 ta : 5.8 g/l

type : Red style : Dry body : Full taste : Fragrant

pack : Bottle size : 750ml closure : Cork

ageing : 8–15 years after harvest

Frans Smit was Spier’s prodigious Cellar Master for 27 formative years. In honour of his remarkable influence and ongoing legacy, the Frans K. Smit wines represent the highest echelon of our winemaking craft. Produced in extremely limited quantities, the coveted blends are complex, nuanced and enjoyed around the world. After passing the Cellar Master baton to his successor Johan Jordaan in 2021, Frans and Johan continue to collaborate creatively on this wine in the vineyard and cellar.

in the vineyard : The site is 6 km from the ocean and overlooks False Bay from the slopes of the Helderberg mountain to the south of Stellenbosch. Deep, rich soils form decomposed granite from a maritime climate with cool, wet winters and mild summers. Trellised vines aged between 18 and 26 years produced the fruit for this wine. Northwestern-facing slopes from 220–320 m above sea level allow for ample sunlight but also moderation in temperature, while summer foliage management assists in ideal exposure to sunlight to ripen phenolics and fruit at a moderate rate.

about the harvest: The fruit was hand-harvested at optimal ripeness in small lugs and pre-cooled to 10ºC before de-stemming.

in the cellar : Berries were invidually sorted to remove unwanted raisins or under-developed berries that could negatively influence the wine quality. Berries were crushed to stainless-steel tanks for alcoholic fermentation up to 21 days before free-run wine is barreled down to French-oak barrels (70% 1st fill) for malolactic fermentation and maturation. After 29 months of barrel maturation, the individual components were carefully selected and blended for a further three months of ageing – 32 months in total.

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