Cabernet Sauvignon

Beef, Lamb, Poultry

The grapes for this wine are from 4 different Cabernet vineyards and our best Malbec, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot vineyards, all at a mix of different elevations. Although all are on the decomposed granite soils typical of the hillsides in Jonkershoek, the soil textures vary quite a lot and that, together with the differences in elevations and clones, gives a variety of different flavour profiles to the grapes.

Only 300l French oak was used, of which about 30% were new. Bottled without fining and with no filtration after 20 months barrel maturation.

The Cabernet Franc grapes were picked in late February, the Malbec early March, and the Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and the Petit Verdot were harvested in mid-March. The grapes were picked into small lug boxes and cooled overnight to about 14 degrees before being hand-sorted and crushed into small open-top fermentation vats. After being cold-soaked for a couple of days, some of the musts were inoculated with a mix of domestic and imported Bordeaux yeast. About 40% underwent fermentation with the natural yeasts. The fermentations were hand punched-down every 4 hours for the first half of fermentation and every 6-8 hours until dry. At dryness, the wine was basket-pressed and racked to barrel for malo-lactic fermentation and barrel maturation.

Stark-Condé Wines is located in the picturesque Jonkershoek Valley in Stellenbosch. It is a dramatic valley with steep changes in vineyard elevation from 150 to 600 metres making for a range of sites with distinct characteristics. At Stark-Condé they stick to traditional winemaking methods: open tank fermentation meticulous sorting of grapes hand-punchdowns basket pressing and maturation in small French oak barrels.