Pinot Noir

Grilled salmon or tuna. Lighter, mildly prepared beef of pork.

The harvest started slightly earlier than usual for the vineyards in Elgin and Overberg. Picking slightly earlier gave wines with good acidity and texture. Smaller berries with thicker than usual skins makes for age-worthy wines with fine-grained tannins. From three distinct cool-climate vineyards in the Western Cape. The Overberg vineyards bring a classic and elegant strawberry-fruit profile, while the vineyards in Elgin add structure and depth. the Durbanville vineyards give the final wine an alluring perfume.

The grapes were hand-picked into small lug-boxes for transport to the winery. Half of the grapes were put into open-top fermenters and given hand punch-downs and the other half in closed tanks done with regular pump-overs. About 20% of the wine was whole-bunch fermented. After primary fermentation, the wine was basket-pressed and racked for malolactic fermentation and subsequent barrel maturation. Only French oak was used, primarily neutral oak, but with about 10% new oak.

Kara-Tara is a joint-venture between Rüdger van Wyk (2018 Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year) and José Conde of Stark-Condé Wines. Translated from the Khoisan, the language from the first people in Southern Africa, it means “deep dark shadows” and refers to the Karatara river that runs through Rüdger’s home town, near Knysna which is located in South Africa, on the Cape South Coast, facing the Indian Ocean.