My Wine of the Month for March is Fleur du Cap 'Series Privée' 2016 WO Coastal Region.
It was a 2019 Pinotage Top 10 Winner and this bottle was my first and only. I bought it in Wine Village, Hermanus, in March 2020.
On opening it had a slight vegetal nose, but this soon went. When poured it was a very dark purple colour and released a power scent of blueberries, which express themselves exuberantly in the mouth. The wine had a creamy texture with tangy spearmint to the fore.
This was a lovely wine, insisting one poured another glass and it was finished all too soon.
If I had more bottles, I would keep them with confidence as this wine, while drinking well now, will surely reward aging.
From the winery fact sheet:
The first vineyard is from Stellenbosch Kloof in Stellenbosch from trellised vines planted in 2000. The row direction is E/W and the slope is north facing.
The other two vineyards originate from bush vine vineyards in Bottelary Hills and Agter Paarl. The Paarl vineyard was planted in 1994 and is farmed under dryland conditions. The soils are Swartland shale with excellent water holding capacity. Grapes are removed to one bunch per shoot resulting in a low yield of 6 tons/ha. The Bottelary Hills vineyard was planted in 1987 in similar soils on a north-west facing slope. Supplementary irrigation was given as required, yielding 7 tons/ha.
The grapes were handpicked, carefully destemmed and lightly crushed to open top fermenters. The wine was punched down during fermentation for optimal extraction of colour and tannins. After passing through small basket presses, the wine went straight to barrel (30% new oak) for malolactic fermentation. Racking as opposed to filtration was used to clarify the wine. The final blend was completed after 16 months in barrel.
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