Cabernet Sauvignon

Delicious with most red meat dishes. Butterfly leg of lamb on the braai with wild rosemary a personal favourite.

1st block 26-year-old vines on 7 wire vertical trellis. Mix of 6 different clones on 101-14 rootstock. Elevation 393 vineyard. – high altitude mountain slope. Soil deep red Hutton decomposed granite. Yield 3 tons / ha. (18hℓ/ha) 2nd block 17-year-old vines on 7 wire vertical trellis. Clone CS169, 46 & 163 on 101-14 rootstock. North facing Keermont vineyard. Soil deep red Hutton decomposed granite. Yield 6 tons / ha (36hℓ/ha) 3rd block 11-year-old vines on 7 wire vertical trellis. Clone CS23 on R110 rootstock. Elevation393 vineyard. – high altitude mountain slope. Soil deep red Hutton decomposed granite. Yield 4 tons / ha. (24hℓ/ha) These yields equate to around 1,2kg of fruit per vine, arguably the threshold to produce GREAT wine! A relatively easy growing season with moderate weather throughout, following a cold wet winter. An exceptionally warm early spring ensured a successful budburst and flowering with good even shoot growth. Above average rain at the end of October kept soil moisture optimum during the later hot summer. Gale force winds in January caused damage to some of our exposed mountainous vineyards, reducing yields a little. An excellent early harvest with full bodied, generous wines with intense, complex fruit flavours.

Time in barrels 23 months with several rackings to gradually clarify the wine and assist maturation. Minimal use of sulphur and nothing else added. Bottled unfiltered by hand on the property.

100% destemming and crushing by hand directly into 2 ton open top fermentation tanks. Spontaneous natural yeast fermentation @ max. 30ºC. including pre fermentation and post fermentation soaks with regular punch downs for up to 15 days, depending on each parcel. Wine drained directly to barrels, together with single pressing from traditional basket press for malolactic fermentation. 35% new French oak was used from high quality coopers.

A small family winery at the end of the Upper Blaauwklippen Road in the mountains above Stellenbosch South Africa. Established in 1992 by architect David Trafford & artist wife Rita with the focus on high end red wines of great intensity & longevity using minimal intervention production methods.