Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot

Pulled-Pork Sandwiches.

The vines for this wine can be found in Paarl and Wellington. We use natural pesticides to retain the area’s Biodiversity and have large areas left out to encourage natural birdlife and indigenous plant species to thrive. 2018 was a very dry vintage with little rainfall in the winter and a long, warm ripening season leading up to harvest. The berries were small and concentrated for both cultivars in this blend.

40% of the wine was matured in French oak barrels for a period of 10 months before blending and bottling. The use of SO2 was limited to an absolute minimum throughout so as to allow the wine to follow its own course and express its origin most clearly.

Picked at sunrise, the Cabernet Sauvignon was mostly whole berry fermented, whereas the Merlot grapes were crushed and destemmed into separate fermenters. The grapes were cold soaked and a slight carbonic maceration employed for a lift in the fruit expression of the eventual wine. Cool fermentation temperatures and soft, daily pump-overs were used throughout to ensure an unhurried extraction of tannin from the skins. The wine was drawn off the skins straight thereafter in order to avoid over-extraction. Gentle pressing yielded only the best, softly textured wine and this was transferred to tank for malolactic fermentation.

The Radford Dale Philosophy brings together the natural qualities of the geology & climate of the Cape of Good Hope with the experience & passion of a team of friends from the Old World & the New. Together they make some of the finest rarest & most individual wines of this incredible region.