Private Cellar Lord Jackal Private Collection Cape Vintage Reserve

Two tons of Touriga Nacional is hand harvested into 20 kg crates by mid to end February at 26 degrees balling. The grapes are trucked to the cellar and placed in the cold room overnight. The next morning the bunches are destemmed and crushed into a small stainless steel lagar. 20% of the first lighter juice is drained from the lager as soon as possible to give more extraction and richness to the wine. The must stays cooled in the lagar for two to three days before fermentation will start naturally. Only then will a selected yeast be added to the must to ensure a controlled fermentation. During the time in lagar the grape skins will be worked excessively by punch downs around the hour until the sugar has been fermented to the desired level. As soon as the desired level of sugar is reached the fermentation proses is stopped immediately by adding alcohol to the juice. The wine is then left to settle for a few days before its racked from its initial gross lees and a small amount sulphur added. The wine will stay in tank till the end of the year before it is pumped into older 300L barrels for another year before bottling the wine unfiltered. The wine will be bottle aged for at least one more year before release.

Touriga Nacional was sourced from the foothills of the Kasteelberg Mountain near Riebeek West. This vineyard is irrigated and planted on mainly oakleaf soils giving it the capability to reach high levels of ripeness without the berries turning to raisins. These mainly decomposed granite soils gives wine with good balance between structure and fruit.