in the vineyard : Planted between 1987 and 1992, the vineyards bearing the grapes used to craft this wine are grown on slopes facing west and north-west and on soils originating from decomposed granite and Table Mountain sandstone. The vines are all grafted onto nematode-resistant rootstocks of Richter 99, Richter 110 and 101-14 and are trellised on extended Perold systems. With the hot, dry growing season during 1998, the vines received supplementary overhead irrigations to limit the amount of moisture-stress they were subjected to. The yield from the vineyard was restricted to an average of 5.7 Tonnes per hectare to further enhance the quality of the fruit.
in the cellar : After destalking and crushing, the mash was fermented with a selected, pure yeast culture with the juice being removed from the skins after six days. Fermentation temperatures averaged out at around 27 degrees Celsius.
Once the fermentation was complete, the wine was drained off the primary lees and transferred to a “resting†tank. After malolactic fermentation was complete, a brief settling period preceded the transfer of the wine to a combination of 85% French oak barrels and 15% American oak barrels where it spent the next 24 months maturing.
A light egg white fining was used to “polish†the wine before being bottled on 2 March 2001. Total production was 3,288 Cases (12 x 750ml).