With less rain and more difficult conditions, total wine grape production was lower than in 2015. Despite the drier weather, the vineyards remained healthy, producing smaller berries with high flavour concentration and good colour. Depth and subtle structure indicate a very promising vintage for the 2016 wines.

Grapes are hand-picked, placed in small lug boxes, and transported to the cellar in a refrigerated truck. The whole berries are double-sorted in the cellar using optical sorting before being gravity-fed into wood fermenters. Each parcel is cold-soaked for a few days before gradually increasing in temperature, where fermentation occurs naturally. After fermentation, the skins were macerated for 5 days. The wines were aged in 60% new French oak for 24 months before being bottled unfiltered and bottle-aged for additional seven years before release. The grapes are primarily from our Franschhoek vineyards, with a small portion coming from our Groenekloof vineyards.

The 2015 vintage was our driest and earliest harvest in a very long time, with a resultant small crop, very healthy harvest with low disease stress. With the absence of the usual heat waves in most regions, cooler than usual weather in February was ideal for ripening and harvesting. Lower temperatures at night during this time contributed towards good colour and flavour particularly in red cultivars. Temperatures escalated again during March, which led to the harvest ending approximately two weeks earlier than usual in most regions. Promising grape analyses with low pH plus good acidity and sugar levels, indicated high quality wines to come from this vintage. Smaller berries coupled with moderate temperatures during the harvest time led to good colour and intense flavour in this year’s red wines.

Grapes are picked at optimal ripeness in small 18-kg lug boxes, and then transported to the winery in refrigerated trucks. Once at the winery, the grapes are stored in our cold room at 5°C. This brings down the temperature of the grapes, ensuring only firm and cool grapes go onto the sorting line, preventing oxidation and juice loss. The bunches are destemmed, and the berries are sorted with an optical sorter, scanning, and Sorting berries for premium color and size. Fermentation happens in 10- ton French oak fermenters and in 225L French oak barrels. The time on the skins lasts between 21 and 32 days. Malolactic fermentation occurs, and aging is completed in a 225L French oak barrel with 80% new oak used in combination with 20% second-fill barrels. Components from each of the different vineyard blocks are made and aged separately for the first 16 months. Careful barrel selection and blending follow to ensure optimum consistency and quality in the final blend, which is then allowed a final sixmonth barrel maturation. Bottling is done after 24 months of total barrel maturation, and then finally, allowed extensive bottle aging before release into the market.

The vineyards for this specific blend were chosen from our best sites, L’Ormarins in Franschhoek and Rooderust in Groenekloof, close to Darling. The L’Ormarins vineyards with the decomposed granite supplied the richness and fullness to th e wine. The Rooderust vineyards, which has more clay and a slightly warmer climate, supplied th e intense fruit aromas. Together these terroirs produced a unique wine.

Grapes are picked at optimal ripeness in small 18kg lug boxes, and then transported to the winery in refrigerated trucks. This is to prevent premature crushing and oxidation of the grape juice. At the winery, the grapes are stored in a cold room at 5°C. This brings down the temperature of the grapes to about 10°C that keeps the grapes firm and cool to prevent oxidation and juice loss on the sorting line. The bunches are destemmed and the berries are sorted with an optical sorter that scan berries for colour and size , and only the best goes into tank for fermentation. Fermentation happens in 10-ton French oak fermenters and in 225l French oak barrels. Time on the skins was between 21 and 32 days. Malolactic fermentation happened 100% in 225l French oak barrels. Ageing was in 225l French oak barrels 85% new and 15% second fill. All the different vineyard blocks are made and aged separately for 16 months. Then we do a barrel selection to pick the very best that will work for this blend. After the blend was made it was taken back to the same barrels for another 6 months. Bottling after 24 months in barrel was done with gravity, and then the bottles were cellared for extensive bottle ageing before release into the market.

The vineyards for this specific blend were chosen from our best sites. The L’Ormarins vineyards with the decomposed granite supplied the richness and fullness to the wine. The Rooderust vineyards, which has more clay and grow in a slightly warmer climate, supplied the intense fruit aromas. Together these terroirs produced a unique wine.

Grapes are picked by hand, placed into small lug boxes and transported to the cellar in a refrigerated truck. In the cellar, the whole berries are manually double-sorted and then gravity-fed into wooden fermenters. Each batch is cold-soaked for a few days and then slowly brought up to temperature. Fermentation takes place naturally. The wines were aged for 24 months in 100% new French oak, bottled unfiltered and bottle-aged for 24 months.