Clos Malverne Pinotage Reserve 2021

The grapes are hand- harvested at optimal ripeness. They are then destalked, crushed and fermented for 7 days on their skins in open fermenting tanks. The average fermentation temperature is 25-30° C. After fermentation, the skins are pressed in traditional basket presses. The free run and pressed juices are combined, and malolactic fermentation spontaneously takes place in the tank. Now the wine is racked and goes into specially selected 225l oak barrels of which approximately 20% are American and 80% French Nevers. The wine spends 12 months in wood, filtered and bottled.

The Pinotage grapes for this wine come from the Devon Valley, with nutrient rich and deep soils. The grapes were hand harvested at optimum ripeness, and that is when the winemaker feels the degree of sugar is high enough whilst the flavours in the grape have developed substantially, with no bitter tannins left in the skins.

12 months

Pinotage

It will go well with smoked red meats or game such as springbok, ostrich and kudu. Also enjoy slightly chilled with desserts like a dark berry pavlova or with double cream chocolate mousse.

Seymour Pritchard bought the 10-hectare farm, Malvern Heights, in 1969 from Colonel JW Billingham, who had named the farm after the rolling hills around Malvern in his native England. When winemaking came into Seymour’s sights in the mid-1980’s, France was still the epicentre of the wine universe. He then added some “French Flair” to the name and changed it to Clos Malverne, due to the homestead on the farm being reminiscent of a Clos in France.