The 2015 vintage was the start of a long, dry spell in the Western Cape. Due to this dryness and heat towards the end of the growing season, the 2015 vintage is our smallest to date (2.3t/ha). As a result, we picked both our old block and young block together for the first time and, as depressing as it was to look at, the whole farm fitted into one tank. As opposed to having various methods of fermentation ie, small bin punch-downs and pump-overs, all the wine was made in stainless steel tank with the pump-over method. Being a smaller crop, we have unbelievable fruit intensity and by fermenting in stainless steel, we were able to control the temperature throughout the fermentation and therefore retain the fruit intensity of the vintage. Luckily the ferments went very dry with low residual sugars which balanced the low natural acidity of the vintage. Three pump-overs a day to make sure that we got enough tannin and structure to balance the fruit.
A total of four weeks on skins then pressed and directly to barrel. We upped the new wood component to 30% and the balance of older wood down to 6th fill. Of the total barrel selection, 8% Hungarian Oak and the rest was French Oak. After 2 years in barrel, we made up the final barrel selection before bottling.
Grapes were sourced from Luddite vineyard sites:
Old & Young Block - picked on the 17th February 2015
Average analysis of fruit at harvest
23.4° Balling, TA – 6.2 g/l, pH – 3.4
Tasting Notes as at 4 September 2018
Appearance: Dark cherry in colour.
Nose: Spice and scrubland with cloves and dark cherry fruit.
Palate: Fresh, dry, spicy entry with dark fruit, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and liquorice on the mid-pallet with a refreshing, long, dry finish.
Analysis of the wine
Alcohol: 14.85% pH: 3.61 TA: 4.9 g/l RS: 2.0 g/l 5 900 bottles of this vintage were produced.