| Winemaker |
Charl du Plessis |
| Winemakers Approach |
This vintage once again contains Petite Sirah, adding colour and complexity to the wine. These are the amongst the first Petite Sirah vineyards in South Africa and I am excited about the prospects as the vineyards mature. |
| The Vintage |
Malabar is the flagship of our range, with each grape varietal vinified and matured individually in our dedicated Malabar cellar. Total production for the 2006 vintage was nineteen 225l barrels. |
| The Vineyard |
The hand selected fruit was harvested from dryland vineyards in the Swartland. The Shiraz is from a trellised vineyard, planted on oakleaf and koffieklip soils in 1995. The Mourvèdre was planted in 2001, mainly on oakleaf soil. The Petite Sirah component hails from the maiden block in South Africa, planted in 2001. The Grenache vines are 55 years old, planted on sandy decomposed granite. And the Tannat is also from the maiden block in South Africa, planted on koffieklip soil in 2003. |
| The Winemaking |
Malabar is a blend of varieties, vinified and matured individually in our dedicated Malabar cellar. The fruit was hand harvested early in the morning into small lug boxes. After a bunch selection, the individual berries were hand sorted over a sorting table and fermented in open 1800kg French oak vats. The individual components were matured in French oak vats for 14 months, during which time the barrels are tasted regularly. The best barrels were selected, blended and returned to barrel for a further 12 months. The wine was bottled without being filtered. Total production for the 2006 vintage was nineteen 225l barrels. |
| Analysis |
|
| Alcohol |
14.5% |
| Residual Sugar |
2.5 g/l |
| Acidity |
6.3 g/l |
| pH |
3.5 |
