Tulbagh Shiraz Collection

The winemaking process emphasizes minimal intervention, allowing the natural characteristics of the fruit and terroir to shine through.

Situated in the Tulbagh region of South Africa, Blue Crane Vineyards benefits from a unique terroir that imparts distinctive qualities to their wines. The estate focuses on producing terroir-driven wines with exceptional smoothness. The Shiraz grapes are carefully cultivated and harvested to ensure optimal ripeness and flavour development.

The wine is aged in barrels for 24 months, enhancing its complexity and depth.

The grapes were picked early in the morning to maintain the cooler night temperature. The grapes were then destemmed, and hand sorted, followed by cold maceration for a period of three days before inoculation. During fermentation, a combination of punch downs and pump overs were applied for the extraction of colour and tannins.

The wine was aged in a combination of new and older French oak barrels for a period of 15 months.

Manley Wine Estate is situated in the Tulbagh Valley, characterized by a mid-latitude desert climate and shale/schist-based Swartland soils. These conditions contribute to the phenolic ripeness and terroir-driven qualities of their wines.

The grapes were hand-picked in the early morning and force-cooled to 4 °C. Then they were bunch-sorted, destemmed and berry-sorted on vibration tables by 25 highly trained staff. On average 75% of the berries were gently crushed (while the rest was kept whole) before being deposited into a satellite tank and transported to both open and closed fermenters. The must was de-juiced by 8%. It was given a cold soak of 3 days at 9 °C protected by a CO2 blanket. The juice was pumped over once daily during this period. The tanks were then heated to 18 °C and inoculated with BM45, L2056 and D254 yeast. The fermentation temperature was allowed to peak at 28 °C. The fermenting cap was punched down three times daily and two pump-overs were done per day. Total time on the skins varied from 11 to 16 days. The wine was then pressed into 30% new and 70% second and third-fill 300 liter Allier French oak barrels. The press fraction was separated. Malolactic bacteria were inoculated and malolactic fermentation was completed in the barrels.

After malolactic fermentation, the wines were given a low sulphur dose and left on the gross lees for 10 months. The wine was then racked, blended and returned to barrel. After a total of 18 months in barrel, the wine was filtered through a coarse sheet filter. Bottling was done with a fine sheet filtration.

The grapes were hand-picked in the early morning and force cooled to 4 °C. It was then bunch sorted, destemmed and berry sorted on vibration tables by 25 highly trained staff. Depending on the vineyard the berries were gently crushed into a satellite tank and deposited in open and closed fermenters while some were kept whole. The must was dejuiced by 10 - 12% depending on the vineyard. It was given a cold soak of 3 - 5 days at 8 °C protected by a CO2 blanket. The juice was pumped over once daily during this period. The tanks were then heated to 18 °C and inoculated with either BM45, L2056 or D254 yeast. The fermentation temperature was allowed to peak at 28 °C and then brought down to 24 °C. The fermenting cap was manually punched down four times daily and one pump over per day. The rest was given extended maceration after fermentation. Total time on the skins varies from 11 to 24 days. The wine was then pressed into 80% new and 20 % second-fill 300 liter, Allier French oak barrels. The press fraction was separated. Malolactic bacteria were inoculated and malolactic fermentation was completed in the barrels.

After malolactic fermentation the wines were given a low sulphur dose and left on the gross lees for 10 months. The wine was then racked, blended and returned to barrels. After a total of 20 months in barrels the wine was racked and filtered through a coarse sheet filter. Bottling was done with a fine sheet filtration. On a small number of vineyards whole bunch fermentations were done at varying percentages for greater flavour diversity