Cellar Master Series Pendulum

Roasted pork or duck with cranberry jus, Barbequed thickly cut Karoo lamb loin chops with rosemary, Lamb tomato stew, Feta cheese

Tradouw is in the heart of the Little Karoo and is known for its continental climate with cold nights and warm days. These conditions are detrimental for colour and fruit development. The Cabernet Franc and Merlot are grown on clay/loam soils with some decomposed Bokkeveld Shale. These soils produce wines with a certain amount of depth, elegance, minerality and freshness. The wines are also recognised to have lower pH’s which prolongs the longevity. The age of the Cabernet Franc vineyard in 2019 was 20 years and that of the Merlot, 18 years. The total rainfall in 2018 was a mere 90mm, compared to the average of 470mm. Although this was extremely low, there was enough water to ripen the grapes to its full maturity. Nice and even budburst was possible because of the consistent cooler airow transcending from the nearby Langeberg Mountain range. The drier ripening season meant the conditions were favourable for an ultra-low disease risk which meant much less spraying of fungicides and providing conditions of organic farming. Grapes were picked by hand in the cool of the morning during the 3rd week of March.

The wines were then given a 2-week maceration on the skins before being pressed and MLF allowed to complete in tank and transferred later in 2019 into big 400 and 500 liter vats where it lay for 30 months. I did final selection, blending and bottling in February 2022 and a mere 2300 bottles were bottled. The blend consists of 85% Cabernet Franc and 15% Merlot.

The Cabernet Franc and Merlot was given a long cold maceration of 4 days after which they were individually inoculated with a yeast cultivated in Bordeaux. The extraction methods included 2 punch downs and 2 aerated pump-overs per day until 10˚B. 3 closed pump-overs per day followed, until all the sugar was fermented out.

Travelling through the Swartland on the back of a truck, heading towards an auction, a Nguni cow knew a beautiful vineyard when she saw one and jumped off. She was appropriately named Survivor when the grower found her grazing in his vineyard. Pierre Wahl excels at creating powerful and elegant wines, choosing to showcase the cultivar’s fruit characteristics, embraced by an old-world elegance in structure and texture. A masterfully crafted fine wine brand that speaks to inner strength, roots, character and refined taste.