Dornier Pinotage

Romazini: 4/5 Stars

The Winemaker

Tasting Notes: Each year the vineyard block leaves us amazed at the consistent quality and class of the wine it produces. Both parents of this cultivar (Pinot noir and Cinsaut) are each now becoming ever present. The wine shows the elegance and poise of the Pinot noir with its freshness and mild blackberry characteristics. From the Cinsaut it borrows the masculine flavours and upfront fruit attributes to provide for a truly complex wine with a fine, well-crafted tannin structure.

Vintage Conditions: The season leading up to the harvest period provided excellent conditions for optimal ripeness and flavour concentration. This year the harvest started earlier than expected, 10 days to be exact, however, it ended approximately 10 days later. These longer ripening conditions therefore provided for excellent fruit concentration and elegance.

Fermentation and Ageing: This wine was fermented in open stainless steel tanks with gentle pump overs performed twice daily as to only extract the elegant soft tannins. After primary alcoholic fermentation the wines underwent malolactic fermentation followed by 12 months ageing in 11% new and the remainder in second fill French oak barrels ageing to provide for supple, rounded tannins.

Food Pairing: Game. Chocolate sauce. Mild and medium curries.

Analysis: Alcohol : 14 %
Residual Sugar : 2.1 g/L
Total Acid : 5.26 g/L
Final pH : 3.57
VA : 0.5 g/L