The wine exhibits all the classic characteristics of a “Bordeaux-style†blend with its soft elegance, complex fruit/wood balance and gentle tannin structure. It is full and ripe without being heavy and balances well the ability to be enjoyed young with the ability to last well in the bottle. Its flavour spectrum is “upfront†without being arrogant and the ripe fruit flavours linger well in the aftertaste.
With its soft, medium-full structure, this wine should be served at a cool room –temperature of about 18 degrees Celsius and can be enjoyed with herb-crusted lamb roasts, grilled game fish or on its own.
in the vineyard : Stellenzicht Vineyards lies on the northwest slopes of the Helderberg Mountain. Here, in the heart of the “Golden Triangleâ€, the soils of decomposed granite and Table Mountain sandstone combine perfectly with the local climatic conditions resulting in an area well known and respected for its ability to produce red wines of distinction.
All of the vineyards are grafted onto nematode-resistant rootstocks and receive supplementary irrigations to avoid excessive moisture stress over the ripening period. By means of judicious winter pruning and summer canopy management, yields are kept low (6 tonnes per hectare) in order to optimise quality.
in the cellar : The components of this wine, crafted from the four main “Bordeaux†varieties viz. Cabernet Sauvignon (47%), Cabernet Franc (22%), Merlot (23%) and Malbec (8%) were handled separately and only blended once they had shown their true characters after maturation.
All the grapes used in this wine were handpicked and delivered to the winery in tractor-drawn trailers before being destalked, crushed and transferred to stainless steel fermenting vessels. Pure yeast cultures were inoculated to optimize the respective fermentations and the wines allowed to ferment to dryness before being pressed pneumatically. Malolactic fermentations were completed in tank before the wines were individually transferred to small, 225 litre, oak barrels for the maturation period.
Individually, the components each spent an average of 27 months in new barrels of French Oak (88%), American Oak (6%), and Russian Oak (6%) before being blended together and prepared for bottling. Of the barrels used for the maturation of the wines, 50% were new, 20% were one year-old and the remaining 30% were two years old.
A total of 1051 cases (12 x 750ml) were bottled on 10 December 2001.