Tempranillo

Try with cured meats, tomato based pizza and baked pasta.

A single block at Dornier, lower down the valley, was grafted over from Cabernet Sauvignon (planted in 2003) to Tempranillo in 2010. (So, essentially a mature vineyard). Due to our winery in Malgas, I was curious to work with the grape and in 2013 purchased 1 ton as a one off adventure. It is an excellent well- kept vineyard on your left as you drive into Dornier. Typical decomposed granite soil of the area with medium to high growth potential.

Time in barrel 27 months with 1/3 new French oak in the first 18 months before blending to a single 700L old oak barrel for a further 9 months.

Handpicking into 20 kg lugboxes. Destemming and gentle crushing directly into small open top fermentation tanks. Spontaneous natural yeast fermentation @ max. 26 deg. with the cap of skins punched down manually 2 - 3 times a day for 11 days. Wine drained directly to barrels together with single pressing from basket press.

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.