Most of the fruit for this wine was sourced from our own vineyards with a few selected parcels from other Stellenbosch vineyards. In 2017 we had a very dry winter season and warm dry conditions early in the growing season but slightly cooler weather in the run up to harvest. The drier than usual conditions resulted in smaller berries and with the cool weather in the later stages of ripening lead to good balance of fruit concentration and elegance with very little intervention required.

After careful selection in the vineyard the grapes were hand sorted at the winery ensuring only the best fruit was vinified. After de-stemming, the grapes were fermented in a combination of stainless-steel tanks and traditional open-top fermenters. We used a combination of “punch down” and “pump over” at different stages during fermentation for the best possible extraction and to get balance between flavour and tannin levels. Special care was taken not to over extract the wine and maintain density without compromising elegance. After primary fermentation the grapes were gently pressed and transferred to French oak barrels (40% new, 30% second-fill and 30 % third-fill) for 18 months before final blending took place.