Cabernet Sauvignon - Kleine Zalze Vineyard Selection Cabernet Sauvignon

The wine shows rich dark berry and spicy tomato leaf aromas, which follow through onto the palate.  Flavours are well integrated with cinnamon oak spice and ripe tannins, providing the wine with a medium-full velvety texture.  This medium full bodied wine can be enjoy now or keep for up to eight years.

Viticulture
The grapes were harvested from 2 different blocks on our Groote Zalze farm.  The southwesterly winds and the cool ripening season allowed the fruit to reach optimum ripeness at harvest.  Looser bunches with small berries were formed resulting into a juice with deep red colour. The long ripening period led to the development of good Cabernet Sauvignon fruit flavours.  Through green bunch dropping the crop were reduced to 5 tons / ha thus giving even ripened grapes throughout the vineyard.


Vinification
Before entering the cellar, the grapes were hand selected on the sorting tables, leaving only the best berries for vinification. After crushing, the grapes were split into stainless steel and open fermented cement tanks.  After three days of cold soaking, the grapes were inoculated with selected dry yeast for the fermentation process to start.  The stainless steel tank was regularly pumped over for optimum colour and flavor extraction and the cement tanks received regular punch-downs to ensure the necessary grape tannins for the blend.  After fermentation, extended skin contact was given before pressing. Thereafter, the wine was matured for 16 months in French oak barrels (40% first fill, 30% second fill and 30 % third fill).