Accolades
Platter’s South African Wine Guide 2011: 3 stars
Tasting Notes
"Pepper , spice and nice"
On popular request our Shiraz makes its first return as single varietal since the 2002 vintage (when previously under the Mellasat label). Typical spice, cherry fruit with a hint of leather.
In The Vineyard
The wine was made from grapes that were produced on the farm Dekkersvlei in Klein Drakenstein near Paarl (approx 254 metres above sea level). The vines are trellised with drip irrigation with the yield approximately 6 tonnes per hectare.
About The Harvest
Harvest Date: 11th March 2009
Balling: 25.2°
pH: 3.82
Acidity: 4.6g/li
In The Cellar
Yeast (Laffort Zymaflore F15) was inoculated within 48 hours after crushing then fermented for 6 days on skins at an average temperature of 24 degrees C. Pressed at approx 2 degrees balling. Malolactic fermentation induced in tank and completed within four months. A small adjustment in acidity was made to the Shiraz using tartaric acid prior to barrel maturation.
The wine was barrel matured using a mixture of French (28% second fill & 72% fourth fill) 225 litre oak barrels for 12 months. After racking from barrel the wine was very lightly fined and again racked from tank to tank. No filtering of the wine was undertaken except at bottling when a 5-micron filtration was used.
Production was 175 cases (equivalent to 12 bottles) and the wine released to the South African market in September 2010, and in the UK during May 2011.
