2020 saw the tail end of the drought. The harvest began early and ended in a relatively short period. Average temperatures were moderate, with cool evenings which resulted in good fruit quality. Although yields were on the low side, the grapes had excellent balance between fruit, acidity and tannin. With this wine we are always looking for a fine balance between Power and Elegance. When young, this wine shows the violet/ cassis/black cherry notes typical of this vineyard, coupled with the fine elegant tannins for which the Jonkershoek Valley is known.

This wine is based on a higher elevation vineyard site with a finely-textured decomposed granite soil with a clay sub-soil and a gentle Southwest facing slope. The wines made from this vineyard always seem to have good ripeness coupled with good natural acidity and a unique floral note that sets it apart from our other blocks of Cabernet. There are five different clones within the block, but we focus on just three: clone 46 which is well structured, but with less forward fruit; clone 27 which tends to have a firm tannin; and clone 163 which is quite fruit forward. The grapes were hand-harvested in early March. They were picked into small lug boxes and cooled overnight to 14°C., then de-stemmed and carefully hand-sorted,
crushed into small open fermentation vats and cold-soaked for 2-3 days until natural fermentation started. Vigorous punchdowns were given every 4 hours for the first half of fermentation, then every 6-8 hours thereafter. The wine was basket pressed and racked directly to barrel for malo-lactic fermentation and subsequent barrel maturation. A mix of coopers was used, all French oak, all 300 litre, about 50% new. The wine was bottled without fining and without filtration after 22 months in barrel. This vineyard is organic-in-conversion.