2017 Ladybird Pinotage Organic

We use only bush vine grapes for this wine. The vineyard is un-irrigated and with very low natural yields, between 25 and 30 hl per hectare. We have a very good terroir for Pinotage, this together with some creative winemaking give us the opportunity to produce consistently something special with this unique traditional South – African grape. We have tried every year to change one thing to try and produce an even better wine and small experiments will always continue.

Pinotage is the first grape to ripen in our vineyards. We usually pick when completely phenolicly ripe, which for us is usually around the first
week in February. All our red grapes are hand sorted using modern “vibrating” tables. The berries are gently crushed and moved to small 4 ton open stainless steel fermentation tanks. We use only manual punch downs to extract gently the “good” tannins and colour. Minimal skin contact is given to express the grapes natural explosive fruit. In some years malolactic fermentation is done in barrel, but this is not a common practice. We use only French oak for maturation which is usually around 12 – 14 months.

Very deep red colour, with oodles of rich blackberry, lavender and fresh leather aromas. Good complexity with a good “dollop” of oak to support a lush velvety super concentrated palate. This wine is one of the most concentrated wines we have ever produced and we are looking forward to see how this wine will develop over the next few years.