Merlot

La Bri Estate

The crux of the La Bri renaissance began with the 2008 harvest, the first to be crushed in the new, modern 120 tonne cellar on the Estate. The new cellar has unique circular design and boasts a gravity-fed winemaking process. This allows the team to focus on producing limited volumes of superior quality, elegant wines, that people want to drink and enjoy. To this end, the grapes and wine are, where possible, moved by gravity in order to minimise the use of pumps. To protect and preserve the fruit’s freshness, all grapes are hand-picked and stored overnight in a cold room. The red grapes are then sorted, first as bunches and then as berries, after which they are hoisted in a satellite tank and tipped into fermentation tanks. A pneumatic punch-down system allows for constant skin contact with the fermenting juice, which in turn allows for the maximum extraction of colour. Automated temperature controls built into the tanks ensure ideal fermentation temperatures, while individually programmed pressing cycles ensure the optimum recovery of quality juice. The 15 hectares of vineyards at La Bri grow in diverse soil types from sandy loam to deep and rich alluvial soils. This allows for the range of Grape varieties grown from Cabernet sauvignon to Viognier.