Pearly Gates Pinot Noir

The grapes are handled ( VERY ) gently in the winery. We use between 20 and 40% whole bunch and cold soak for 5 days before natural fermentation starts. Pigeage takes place once, sometimes twice per day and we aim to have to wine on the skins for at least 20 days.

The Pearly Gates Farm, owned by JHN Hanekom, produces the Pinot Noir vineyard used for the Kruger Pinot Noir. The vineyard consists of two neighboring vineyards on 500 meters above sea level in the Upper Hemel and Aarde Valley. Complexity is already reached in the vineyard by having half of the surface planted with east west row direction and half with north south row direction. The vineyard was planted in 2003 with 5 different clones on loam rich top soil, situated on clay and also areas with decomposed granite, resulting in natural low pH and high acidity.

After a gentle pressing the wine settles, goes to older oak barrels for 11 months before bottling. Malolactic fermentation happens naturally in barrel. Racking occurs three times in the wine`s life, which enables us not to filter, resulting in complex and concentrated flavours.