Wine Waterkloof, Circle Of Life Red, 2015
The Waterkloof Range is leading the South African Biodynamic wines. With a unique blend of Syrah, Merlot and Petit Verdot, this exquisite red perfectly captures the robust wines that can come from purest vineyards.
Characteristics
Wine Style:
Red - A red full-bodied red blend that is rather complex with a range of aromas and flavors, great acidity, and smoothness.
Tasting Notes:
A lovely, full-bodied, smooth South African red wine blend of 73% Syrah, 16% Merlot and 11% Petit Verdot grapes. Aromas of fleshy ripe black plum and smoke. The introduction is fresh and fruity with good acidity, evolving into riper flavours and herbaceous notes, with elegant tannins and light acids on the finish.
Gastronomy:
It is very versatile and will complement numerous dishes such as hearty meat stews and lamb shank. Goes very well with Asian cuisine and grilled meats.
Ageing method:
18 months in barrel.
Winemaking process:
All grapes were hand-picked and brought to the cellar by horses. To ensure that only the best berries are used, all grapes are hand-sorted. It was then placed into our wooden fermenters via a gravity system. The Rhône varietals were whole-bunch fermented and the Bordeaux varietals were destemmed. The fermentation started naturally with yeast present on the grapes to enhance the flavours prevailing in the vineyards. Throughout the fermentation process, regular soft punch downs twice a day to gently and slowly extract the tannins. The wines spent around 30 days on the skins during which the tannins were able to soften. The varietals were aged separately in French oak. 600L Barrels for the Rhône varietals and 225L barrels for the Bordeaux varietals. Only 20% were new barrels to avoid the dominance of wood aromatics in our wines. After 18 months in barrel, we blended the Syrah (73%), Merlot (16%), and Petit Verdot (11%) together and kept it for another year in our wooden fermenters. This wine is unfined and gently filtered.
