| Winemaker |
Charl du Plessis |
| Winemakers Approach |
Pinotage is truly at home in the Swartland and this vineyard proves this point year after year. 2009 was an excellent vintage and shows in the complexity and longevity of the wine. |
| The Vintage |
Spice Route Pinotage is an opulent and bold expression of the varietal and is rich and full flavoured. Grapes are from an award-winning trellised vineyard and the wine is matured in new and used American oak barrels to add a subtle oak nuance. |
| The Vineyard |
The fruit for the Spice Route Pinotage 2009 is sourced fruit from a block at the Rheeboksfontein vineyards in the Swartland. The vines are grown on deep red Oakleaf soils. This vineyard has continued to provide exceptional quality fruit, and has been used since the inception of the Spice Route label. The vineyard is trellised and is dryland farmed and typically provides Pinotage with rich dark fruit flavours. Wine of Origin Swartland. |
| The Winemaking |
The Pinotage was harvested at 25 degrees Balling and the vineyard yielded 6.5 tons per hectare in 2009. The ripe Pinotage bunches were fermented in 6 ton open concrete fermentation vats, at our cellar outside Malmesbury. The cap was manually punched down twice daily, extracting deep colour and flavour. The wine was pressed off and transferred to American oak barrels, with full malolactic fermentation allowed in barrel. The wine was matured for 15 months in 225l American oak barrels. 35% new barrels were used, with the remainder being 2nd to 4th fill. |
| Analysis |
|
| Alcohol |
14% |
| Residual Sugar |
2.2 g/l |
| Acidity |
6.1 g/l |
| pH |
3.61 |
