In the Bottle
How we make it: The grapes for this wine come from a bush vine vineyard on the farm Koopmanskloof in the Agter-Paarl. The vineyard is un-irrigated and planted on deep, well-drained Malmesbury shale soils. The grapes are very well balanced and we harvest them only when they've reached a sugar of 30°B. In the cellar, the grapes are crushed into stainless steel tanks and cold soaked at 14°C for 2 days to extract as much colour and fruit as possible before fermentation. Wild yeast is then allowed to start the fermentation before a dry Saccharomyces yeast is inoculated to ensure a controlled fermentation at 24-26°C. After about half of the original sugar is fermented, the skins are pressed into a stainless steel tank; and the must is chilled to 12°C and fortified to 18 vol % alcohol with wine spirits to prevent further fermentation. We mix it once a week to help marry the wine and added alcohol and when it is ready for bottling, we clear it up and filter it.
How to store it: It improves with age and can be stored up to 20 years.
Food suggestions: The soft, medium sweet palate and silky tannins makes for an excellent aperitif. It also goes down very well with chocolate, ice cream and fruity desserts.
