Reserve Collection Cabernet Sauvignon

The grapes were de-stemmed, before passing across a sorting table and then crushed directly into tanks for fermentation without the use of pumps. There is first a period of cold maceration for up to 5 days before the fermentation starts spontaneously. The grapes were fermented in stainless steel and wooden upright (foudre) fermenters. Pump-overs, délestage and punching down of the cap were implemented twice a day for extraction until the fermentation completed. The grapes were given maceration post fermentation. The wines were put to barrel for malolactic fermentation after which they were racked, sulphured and put back to barrel for further maturation.

This wine is made from Tokara’s Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards on the slopes of the Simonsberg Mountain just outside of Stellenbosch. The vineyards yield between 7 and 9 t/ha. The grapes were hand-picked at optimal ripeness between the 25th March and the 16th April.

The wines spent a total of twenty-two months in 59% new French oak - the rest being older French oak barriques. During maturation the wines received four rackings, all done barrel to barrel. The wine was bottled in January 2023 with no fining and a light filtration.