The wine started out opaque with a vivid, purple rim and then changed to a deep ruby wine, with wonderful intensity of colour. A nose of great depth, with elegant lead pencil and cassis flavours. Allow a few minutes in the glass; very attractive bouquet of violets and cedary cigar box notes. The tannins on this wine is big and velvety at the same time with meaty / marmite and plummy fruit on palate. The long finish is firmed up by very ripe tannins, culminating in a truly classic Cabernet.
The 2000 vintage of Rudera Cabernet Sauvignon scored 90+/100 in Robert Parker, Jr's 'The Wine Advocate' Issue 145 and 90/100 in Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar Issue 107. This was followed by a 91 for the 2001 Vintage in the Wine Spectator Weekly of 5 August 2004 and ****(*) in The Platter Guide 2005.
ageing :
Drinking well now if allowed time in the glass, but will reward, if properly cellared, for the next decade.
The fruit of two vineyards, both on shale from Koelenhof and Faure, went into the Cabernet. Both vineyards are trellised on a four-wire perold system. Drip irrigation is available to combine canopy management with stress management. The average age of the vines is nine years, and the quality of fruit should improve every year.
Handpicked grapes were brought in to the cellar late in February at 25,7º brix. The pH was 3.4, with a titratable acid of 7,6 g/l. Sorting was done in the vineyard followed by berry selection in the cellar before crush.Our total production was 4,6 tons per hectare (32hl/ha) and only 204 x 6 x 750ml, plus a few 3-litre bottles were made.
Sorting was done in the vineyard, followed by berry selection in the cellar before crush. The grapes were fermented with an innoculated yeast (WE372) and pumped over three times per day. Fermentation was at 31ºC and lasted five days. Extended skin contact lasted a total of 18 days. The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in barrel. Only new French oak barrels were used, all Vicard Prestige barrels. The wine was racked using only gravitation. This was done for the first time after malolactic fermentation, and again three months later. The wine matured in barriques for 23 months.The wine is unfiltered and received only an egg white fining before being bottled.
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