Description

This vineyard was planted in the mid 1963 on decomposed granite soils. It is surrounded on two sides by an old farm ring wall. The vineyard is tiny and completely different from Badenhorst’s Cinsault vineyards. The total yield is 800kg of wonderful grapes. The grapes are sorted meticulously in the vineyard and transported in small picking boxes to a refrigerated container where they are left overnight to cool. The whole bunches are undergo carbonic fermentation in a small sealed tank. After 20 days of fermentation all the wine is transferred to a 500L vat. This wine was bottled directly off its gross lees immediately after 11 months in cask. Hermitake (Cinsault) has been the work horse of the South African industry but over the last couple of decades its star has waned, in favour of the fancy Shiraz and its likes. This is the first time we have managed to bottle this wine on its own. Light hue and vibrant colour. The aromatics are lifted and pure—typical of the carbonic-style. The tannin grip is velvety and there is a wonderful fruit concentration on the palate.