Max Red

Best served with venison pie, beef fillet with a red wine sauce or an oxtail stew. The wine also pairs well with hard cheeses.

The vineyards are specially selected according to their age and site from various parts of Stellenbosch, mostly unirrigated and all low yielding (4 to 6 t/ha). This gives a pure expression of its environment in the wine. The grapes are ripened to peak maturity (between 24 and 25 degrees brix) before being hand harvested and delivered to the cellar.

Maturation takes place in small 225 liter French barriques of which 29% is new and lasts for 22 months with regular rackings. The wine received no fining or filtration before bottling.

After desteming the berries pass over a sorting table for the removal of all unwanted material. The berries then fall through a crusher and drop, via gravity, into small open wooden and stainless steel fermenters. Fermentation takes place by the yeast naturally occurring on the grape and can take anything up to14 days to complete. Extraction occurs through regular pump overs and punch downs. Once fermentation has completed the wine may stay on the skins for an additional period of time which is dependent on the tannin development and ripeness, after which the wine is drained off and pressed in a vertical basket press. Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel after which the wine is racked and returned to barrel for further maturation.

Miles Mossop Wines burst onto the scene in 2004 when the first wines were made: Max 2004 and Saskia 2004. Max is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Petit Verdot and more recently Malbec and Saskia a blend of Chenin blanc Viognier and more recently Clairette blanche. Later in 2009 a third wine was introduced the Kika 2009 a botrytised wine made in the Noble Late Harvest style from 100% Chenin blanc.