Paul Cluver Seven Flags Pinot Noir 2023

This well-defined wine has amazing poise, beginning with the bright red, alluring colour. The aroma shows wonderful, elegant red and dark berry fruit expression ending with lovely soft oak notes. The palate is a combination of firm concentration and freshness. These flavours follow through onto the palate with some salivating savoury notes that has amazing length and complexity with great freshness lifting the fruit, with refined acidity and tannins giving an extraordinary length.

The natural acidity makes it a perfect partner with a diversity of dishes. Game fish, game birds and venison work very well, as does grilled beef and strong, hard cheese.

variety : Pinot Noir [ 100% Pinot Noir ]
winemaker : Andries Burger
wine of origin : Elgin
analysis : alc : 13.7 % vol  rs : 3.6 g/l  pH : 3.4  ta : 5.9 g/l  
type : Red  style : Dry  body : Medium  taste : Fragrant   wooded
pack : Bottle  size : 750ml  closure : Cork  

The farm’s more mature Pinot Noir vineyards, aged between 13 and 19 years, are sought-out for making our icon Pinot Noir, the Seven Flags. Aged in selected French oak barrels for 12 months, Seven Flags Pinot Noir succeeds in offering a Pinot Noir of striking individuality with layered complexity harnessed to showcase its distinctive sense of place.

in the vineyard : Currently there are 22.9 hectares planted to Pinot noir on the estate, which equates to 28% of the total plantings. Clones include 667, 777, 113, 115, 943 and PN5. The first Pinot noir vines were planted in 1989 and the youngest blocks in 2018. Vineyards selected for Seven Flags range in age from 15 to 21 years of age with predominately clone 115, with a little bit of 667 and 777 as well. The soil is decomposed Bokkeveld Shale with underlying clay layers of varying depths. Vine orientation is mostly North/South on North east and South facing slopes and North west/South east on the South facing slopes. Height above sea level ranges from 280 to 400 meters.

in the cellar : Extensive individual berry sorting was done by hand prior to destemming, no crushing of the grapes is allowed. After destemming the berries is transported in satellite tanks and the fermenting vats is filled by gravity. This was followed by cold maceration at 12°- 14° Celsius for 6 days. The fermentation in 3.5-ton wooden vats was allowed to start naturally, some vats completed fermentation without inoculation and others was inoculated with selected Burgundian yeast. During the fermentation, the skin cap was punched through by hand no more than twice per day. After fermentation, the wine pressed and racked to barrel for malolactic fermentation and remained on the fine lees for 12 months. To confirm the superiority of the vineyard sites, the earmarked Seven Flags Pinot noir barrels are tasted blind in conjunction with all the other Paul Cluver Pinot noir barrels in the cellar. The best barrels of the site are then selected and blended to form the Seven Flags Pinot noir, with 40% of the 300l French oak barrels being new.

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