Calligraphy

Perfect with braised lamb shoulder with fennel and orange.

All these grape varieties are grown on our farm, except for the Malbec. Our neighbouring farm has planted 2 rows of Malbec especially for us. This means that the vineyard facing, soil type and general terroir is the same as on Nitida. There were very few heat peaks during the ripening period, which meant great flavour retention in the grapes. We hand-select our grapes in the vineyards, which ensures that only the best grapes make it into the cellar.

After fermentation, the wine is aged in 225L French oak barrels separately. At 12 months all the components are tasted and only the best are chosen for the blend. The wine then gets blended and went back into barrel for a further 6 months. In this case, the wine has also had another year in the bottle to settle and integrate, making for a Bordeaux blend of the finest quality!

Each variety was fermented and matured separately. The juice was fermented in open fermenters, with punch-downs every 4 hours, and left on the skins for 6 weeks post-fermentation to extract optimal colour, tannins and flavour.

Although not intentionally award driven, there is no denying the status of this tiny family-owned Durbanville cellar. Strategically we are following a very traditional but personalised approach to making wine. In line with our brand honesty, we don’t try to be clever or practice contrived marketing jargon. We pick by hand, allowing us to leave the less perfect bunches for the soil to enrich itself – and before pressing, we again sort the individual grapes by hand. “We completely believe that beautiful wines come from day to day thoughtful management in the vineyards.” Our bottom line is that to be part of the Nitida family requires commitment, passion, and a desire to be involved. Our punch through system, while automated, was designed by the engineer in Bernhard to closely emulate a traditional hand-punch method. Of course, we do use modern technology for pressing and pumping, but always seek out the gentlest methods.