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Chardonnay 2010 |
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Shiraz 2008 |
| The very small crop was fermented in three French oak barrels for complexity and richness and matured for ten months before it was racked off, stabilised and bottled after a rough filtration. The wine is ready to be enjoyed but can benefit from cellaring for a year or two. |
White pepper, plums and fynbos on the nose followed by dark cherries and light oak on the palate. Easy drinking. |
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Cabernet 2008 |
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Shiraz 2009 |
| Red berries, plums and hint of mint followed by well rounded palate and light oak tannin. Easy drinking. |
Not released yet. |
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Cabernet 2009 |
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| Not released yet. |
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Winemaking |
| When we decide that the grapes are optimally ripe we harvest as early as possible and stop when it is warm. The grapes are picked by hand into small crates and taken to the winery where the sorting begins. After removing raisins, damaged berries and leaves the grapes are crushed into small plastic bins. Cooling plates are installed and the bins are plastic wrapped and gassed with CO2 twice daily. This cold soaking process is done for three to four days before fermentation is initiated. Punch downs by hand is done twice a day whilst temperature is kept between 23 and 26 degrees. For the Chardonnay we do 100% barrel fermentation at 15 degrees. After fermentation depending on the variety we do extended skin contact until we feel the grapes are ready to be pressed in our small basket press. After pressing and one racking we take the red wine to barrels where malolactic fermentation is carried out. After this process the wines are racked and returned to barrels for another few months of aging. Our wines are just rough filtered before bottling. Our Chardonnay is kept on its lees for a few months before racking and further aging is done in barrels. We use mostly 300 L French oak barrels and bigger to give us cultivar expressive wines instead of wood driven wines. We make use of around 30% new barrels and the rest second and third fill barrels. |
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The vintage 2006 was bottled in August 2007 after a maturation of almost a year in oak barrels. The wine that we store in the Wine Studio is kept under supervised air-conditioning. The vintage 2006 consists of 2,700 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon and 2,500 bottles of Shiraz. The vintage 2007 was aged in French oak barrels and bottled at the end of 2008. We had about 2,500 bottles of each wine. In 2008 we added the Pinotage to our cultivars.
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2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
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About Our Vineyards |
| Family is very important to us and that is why the Shiraz block was named after our first grandson Olaf and the Cabernet Sauvignon after our first granddaughter Julie-Marie, both born in 2005. Their names also appeared on the label of the 2005 bottles. On the bottles of 2006 the names Daphne and Finn appear, our granddaughter and grandson born in 2006. Single blocks are named after them. The single vineyard Pinotage is named after Daphne and the Chardonnay after Finn. The single vineyard Chenin Blanc is given to Maartje, born in 2007. The names of the two other grandchildren, born in 2008, will be given to the newly planted cultivars on Olifantsberg. |
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Single Vineyards |
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Shiraz - Olaf |
Cabernet Sauvignon - Julie-Marie |
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Pinotage - Daphne |
Chenin Blanc - Maartje |
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Chardonnay - Finn |
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