Grangehurst Pinotage 2012

After destalking, sorting and crushing the grapes, the mash was fermented in open tanks for 7 days on the skins. The cap of skins was punched down and mixed with the juice 6 times per day to ensure optimum extraction of colour, tannin and flavours. The basket pressed wine was blended with the free-run wine in stainless steel tanks before being transferred to small oak barrels. The malolactic fermentation occurred in tanks and barrels. This wine was clarified according to the settling and racking method, which does not involve the use of any fining agents, centrifuges or filters – a natural, unhurried method of clarifying wine. The wine from this Pinotage vineyard was matured in oak barrels and then blended with four barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon. The wines spent an average of 20 months in 225 litre French (94%) and American (6%) oak barrels. NOTE: The varietal on the label must be at least 85% - after blending with four barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon, the Pinotage component complied with this requirement (89% Pinotage). After racking and blending, the wine was stored in a stainless steel tank before being bottled using our gentle gravity flow filling system. The wine flowed from the elevated bottling tanks through a cartridge filter to the hand filler and into the bottles. This was the only stage during the entire winemaking process that the wine was filtered.

Selected from a prime bush-vine vineyard in the Helderberg, Stellenbosch that was planted in 1994. The southerly summer sea-breezes that blow over the cool waters of False Bay contribute greatly to the quality of the grapes from this low-yielding vineyard, which is located approximately 5 km from the coast. The Pinotage grapes were harvested on the 26th and 27th of January 2012 at sugar levels of 25.5º Balling. The yield in 2012 was around 3 tons per hectare of optimally ripe, quality grapes – small berries with good colour and concentration.

89% Pinotage; 11% Cabernet Sauvignon

Enjoy this wine with fine cuisine such as seared tuna, tagliatelle carbonara, bobotie or springbok pie.

Grangehurst is a boutique red wine cellar on the slopes of the Helderberg Mountain in Stellenbosch, South Africa. It is a family business that began in 1992 and specialises in the production of handcrafted red wines and a dry rosé, all made using traditional and sustainable winemaking practices. They harvest approximately 80 tons of red wine grape varieties and produce around 60 000 bottles per vintage. Their hands-on approach, years of experience, and uncompromising attention to detail ensure that only the highest quality wines are bottled under the Grangehurst label. Grangehurst's winemaker Jeremy Walker has crafted his wines from Grangehurst since 1992. Jeremy sources the finest grapes from the Stellenbosch region, and strives for every vintage to be made the age old way – using methods that are handcrafted, traditional, and unhurried.