Lingen 2016

About the wine: This vineyard is a pretty, 1,5 hectare “clos” owned by the Krige Family. It is too small to farm economically on its own and because Jonkershoek vineyards are so rare, we took a long-term contract on the vineyard and re-planted it with the idea of making a single-vineyard blended red. It is just up the road from Stark-Condé, but the soils are different – Vilafonte as opposed to the Clovelly and Hutton soils on Stark-Condé – and the resultant wines are correspondingly
different: softer in structure and with a wild fynbos note.

Details of vinification and oaking: The grapes for this wine were harvested over a month-long period from mid-February to mid-March. The grapes were cooled overnight before being de-stemmed and hand-sorted. The sorted grapes were then crushed into small, open-top fermentors and cold-soaked for three days before the on-set of fermentation. Fermentation occurred over a period of 7-9 days with manual punchdowns given every 4-6 hours. After fermentation, the wine was basket pressed and racked into 300-l oak barrels, mostly French, but also a touch Hungarian and American, about 30% new. After 22 months barrel maturation, the wine was bottled without fining and with no filtration.

Winemaker’s notes: This unique blend has the typical rich fruit and soft, elegant tannins that are the hallmarks of Jonkershoek Valley wines. The relatively high percentage of Petit Verdot adds an intriguing wild perfumed note to the wine. The 2016 vintage was a dry year and produced intensely aromatic wines
with velvety tannins. They should reward careful cellaring. Total production: 4035 bottles