Mellasat White Pinotage 2014

AGEING: 300 litre Romanian oak barrels for eleven months (7% first fill, 14% second fill, 7% third fill and 72% older)

The grapes were whole bunched pressed (i.e. without de-stemming or crushing) in a pneumatic “bag” press to minimize colour retention. Extended juice settlement for two days using a settling enzyme and bentonite removes any blush the juice may have retained. The juice (by then a coral colour) was then transferred to 300li Romanian oak barrels (7% first fill, 14% second fill, 7% third fill and 72% older barrels). Batch 3 received an acidification adjustment using tartaric acid to correct pH. Yeast (Laffort VL2) was inoculated then fermented for approximately 12 days at an average temperature of 18˚C. Fermentation caused any remaining “tinting” in colour to drop out. Malolactic fermentation was only partially encouraged in barrel after the alcoholic fermentation and the lees stirred for six months on a weekly basis by rolling the barrels. The length of time for barrel fermentation and maturation was eleven months. Protein stabilisation was undertaken using bentonite, and a gentle fining was finally done to clarify the wine prior to bottling. No filtering of the wine was undertaken except at bottling when a medium filtration (split AF70/110) was undertaken.