Cabernet Sauvignon

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

Ideal winter conditions with sufficient rain and cold units up until the end of August 2021. Excellent budbreak about 7 days later than usual resulting in nice even growth. Early spring was cool and dry and then became cooler and wetter with 123mm in October. This provided vigorous canopies and high fungal disease pressure which we managed well. A very hot and dry January was quite a shock to many vineyards, but our vines in deep soils managed this period well. February was cooler with a little relieving rain. Slightly higher yields, but all in good balance and picked in perfect condition. Harvest date: 4/3/22 & 17/3/22 @ 23,3 & 25 balling

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 at max. 29ºC. 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. 30% 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.