Laibach Pinotage Simonsberg-Stellenbosch 2008

Winemaker's Notes:

Laibach Vineyards is situated on the slopes of the Simonsberg in the Muldersvlei bowl, one of the prime red wine growing areas in South Africa. The history of this wine farm can be traced back until the year of 1818. Originally named “Good Success”, owned by Daniel Johannes van Ryneveld from Amsterdam, this vast farm extended to most of the catchment area in the valley enclosed by the Simonsberg, Kanonkop and Klapmutsberg. Later on it was divided into three farms: Warwick, De Goede Suces and the remainder of the farm Good Success, which was from 1895 until 1994 in the possession of the du Plessis family, until it was taken over by the Laibach family. The fruit is normally picked early February from a seven- year-old bush vine Pinotage block. No irrigation is used and the yield is about 4-5 tons / hectare. Picking is done in the early morning so that no warm fruit is allowed into the cellar. After crushing and destemming the skins are pumped to five ton open fermentation tanks. Traditional punch downs ("pigeage") are used to extract tannins, colour and fruit. This is done every two hours and fermentation takes about 5-7 days to finish. Skins are separated from the juice before fermentation is completed. Malolactic fermentation proceeds in French oak barrels. This particular wine was aged in oak for 15 months (75% new) and bottled with filtration after fining with egg white. The Inkawu Pinotage is a great example of this unique variety. Lovely ripe flavours with banana, lavender and red berry characters prominent. On the palate great balance and complexity, well supported by classic oak aromas. What you smell is what you get and the mouth feel is rich and lively with different dimensions of flavour. This medium to full-bodied wine can be enjoyed now, but will develop in to something very special in 4-8 years. Selected and voted as one of the ABSA TOP 10 Pinotages for 2004.