87 Points Wine Enthusiast, USA
An elegant rich blend with sumptuous blackberry fruits shielding the Shiraz spice. Juicy with intense ripe plum fruit with well-balanced wood integration all around.
Enjoy this wine now with roast beef, guinea fowl, roast chicken, stews, lamb, venison, pasta and steak. Serve at 12° - 14ºC.
variety : Cabernet Sauvignon [ 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 49% Shiraz ]
winemaker : Lolly Louwrens
wine of origin : Breede River
analysis : alc : 13.58 % vol rs : 4.90 g/l pH : 3.52 ta : 5.71 g/l
type : Red style : Dry body : Full taste : Fruity wooded
pack : Bottle
in the vineyard : The 2002 harvest offered many opportunities. A cooler than usual winter, allowing the vines to go into full dormancy. Cooler temperatures continued in Spring and, unusually, lasted well into mid-February, encouraging slow ripening and a build up of concentrated flavours in the grapes. Bunch weights proved to be lighter, giving small berries with a greater proportion of skin and pips to juice, giving real quality of flavour. While the above factors reflect nature-given benefits, one cannot omit the positive human influence in a year when determination, awareness, experience and the will to succeed, played just as important a role in determining the quality of our harvest.
about the harvest: The Shiraz fruit was harvested in the third and the Cabernet Sauvignon fruit in the last week of February from rich limestone soils in the Robertson Valley. An average of 8 tons of Shiraz and 10 tons of Cabernet were harvested per hectare. An annual rainfall of only 280 mm per year is supplemented with controlled drip irrigation from the Breede River. Both Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes were harvested at full ripeness between 24,5° - 26,5°B from a selection of vineyards.
in the cellar : Cold soaking on the Cabernet Sauvignon happened for two days prior to fermentation to ensure optimum colour and flavour extraction. Fermentation happened in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. The Cabernet Sauvignon was matured on French Oak for 10 months and 30% of the Shiraz on was matured on American Oak for 10 months prior to blending.