
2017
Region
South Africa › Western Cape › Walker Bay › WO Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge
Type
red · still
Grapes
Pinot Noir
Alcohol
13.5%
Volume
750 mL
Sugar
3 g/L
This wine features a slightly restrained yet beautiful and evolving bouquet, capturing an array of red fruits at different stages of ripeness, from sour to ripe to dried. This fruit allure is complemented by notes of red flowers, pencil lead, and meat. On the palate, it's surprisingly fresh and juicy, maintaining neat balance throughout.
This wine is made from 100% Pinot Noir grapes, grown using sustainable agriculture on an east-facing sloping parcel of land with poor, stony soil. The soil contains clay and schist. The grapes are hand-harvested, destemmed, and cold-macerated for 10 days in open vats. They are then fermented using indigenous yeasts, pressed in a traditional wooden vertical press, and matured for 9-11 months in French oak barrels, with around 25% new oak. The wine is neither filtered nor fined, and sulfites are used judiciously.
Great and stylish Pinot Noir. A bit meaty yet delicate and the same time. Sunflower seeds, smoke, cherry, raw meat, dust and spices. And what a delicious wine. Medium-bodied with medium-high tannin and good acidity. Almost perfectly balanced.
Great and pleasant Pinot Noir from SA, dusty leather, mixed with plume jam, cherry, bloody meat and spices. Still young and not smooth, intense and meaty, with high acidity (which amazes me). Really want to see what will become with this wine in few years, seems like there is huge potential.