Max Red

Best served with slow roasted lamb, grilled rib-eye steak with bone marrow or an oxtail stew. The wine also pairs well with hard cheeses.

This wine is a blend of 56% Cabernet Sauvignon, 23% Merlot, 15% Petit Verdot and 6% Cabernet franc from specially selected vineyards in and around Stellenbosch. The vineyards are selected based on the age of the vineyard and site from various parts of Stellenbosch, mostly unirrigated and all low yielding (4 to 6 t/ha). Giving a pure expression of its environment in the wine. The grapes are ripened to peak maturity between 23- and 25.5-degrees brix before being hand harvested and placed in a cold store overnight at 4 degrees Celsius.

Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel after which the wine is racked and returned to barrel for further maturation. Maturation takes place in 225 litre French oak barriques of which 22% is new and lasts for 21 months with regular rackings. The wine received no fining or filtration before bottling.

Bunch sorting and berry sorting takes place before gentle and partial crushing to small open wooden and stainless-steel fermenters. There is an initial cold soak period after which fermentation starts naturally and can take anything up to 14 days to complete. Extraction occurs through gentle pump overs and punch downs twice a day. 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. The wine is drained off and pressed in a vertical basket press.

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.