A very warm lead up to the vintage with hot December days. January and February continued to be very hot. This was the maiden vintage of Luddite and the wine was made very traditionally in old cement kuipe with four hourly punch downs. The wine was pressed and allowed to finis malolactic fermentation in tank.
The wine was then racked into 75% French Oak and 25% American oak. 30% of these barrels were new and the rest 2nd, 3rd and 4th fill.
The wine remained in barrel for 1 year and was then bottled.
Tasting Notes
Appearance
Dark, purple, plummy.
Nose
Cloves, cinnamon and dark fruit.
Palate
Plums, mulberry and cloves on entry. Middle palate has dark fruit concentration with savoury spice. Well balanced tannin and fruit linger to the finish.
Grapes were sourced from three vineyard sites
Bot River harvested on 22nd February 2000.
Bottelary, Stellenbosch Kaapzicht harvested on 2nd March 2000.
Bottelary, Stellenbosch Steneveld harvested on 8th March 2000.
Average analysis of fruit at harvest.
25.3° Balling, TA – 5.5 g/l, pH – 3.76
Analysis of the wine
Alcohol: 14.1%
pH: 3.6
TA: 5.8 g/l
RS: 1.8 g/l
6 000 bottles of this vintage were produced.
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