WHOLE BUNCH PRESSED - WILD YEAST FERMENTED - UNFILTERED
GRAPEVARIETAL
100% Swartland Shiraz
ORIGIN & HARVEST
The grapes were harvested during late February from unirrigated bush vines in our Swartland vineyards at a balling of between 24.2 and 25.3°. These grow on a combination of clay soils with exceptional water holding capacity and sandy-loam topsoil with well-structured subsoil, formed on weathered rock. Yield is around 5.5 tonnes / ha. Improved winter rains came as a welcome respite from three consecutive dry years, resulting in good bunch set and improved yields with excellent grape quality.
VINIFICATION
The grapes were crushed as whole clusters with minimal SO2 addition and were initially pigeaged twice a day. Spontaneous fermentation with indigenous wild yeasts commenced after about four days and the cap was kept moist with one or two gentle actions per day. Fermentation temperatures were kept below 28.5 °C with fermentation lasting nine days. Another six weeks of skin contact was allowed before the wine was pressed to barrel and tank for malolactic fermentation and maturation. The barrel sizes varied between 500 litre French oak barrels and 2000 litre foudre. The wines were blended and returned to barrel for later bottling, unfiltered and unfined.
