Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon (Stellenbosch)

Top Cabernet Sauvignon is synonymous with South Africa’s traditionally most recognised wine region, Stellenbosch. This wine is from a single vineyard, rooted in magnificent decomposed granite & clay soils on the Helderberg Mountain in Stellenbosch. These ocean-facing vines produce some of the most complex fruit and individual flavours of the land, combining the geological and climatic uniqueness of this site. Over the winter before harvest, rainfall figures came close to the long term average for Stellenbosch, which came as a relief to many. With more moisture in the soil, the vines showed strong, even budding in the Spring.

As usual all grapes were hand picked and placed into lug boxes for manual sorting so that only the most perfectly ripe bunches were selected. Then whole berries were put into 600L wooden open-top fermenters. These filled barrels all fermented spontaneously and individually, each developing its own flavours and aromas, resulting in far greater complexity than could be achieved by fermenting a single volume. The wine was left to mature on lees over the course of 16 months in small French oak barrels, predominantly older oak. Minimal intervention throughout meant that the wine was able to develop its won personality, rather than a contrived commercial character.