Stellenrust is one of the largest family-owned wine estates in South-Africa. They started their estate in 1928 and expended over the years. Nowadays, they have almost 400 hectares of land spread out over the 'Golden triangle' & Bottelary Hills. This sub-region is not only known because of its impressive landscape, but it is also the residence of the most famous wine producers of the country. The wine maker Tertius Boshoff highly values a fair-trade product. In 2005, they decided to give a little back to their 70 employees & gave them a permanent contract and empowered them on 100 hectares of their land, as main shareholders.
The grapes are harvested from 3 different farms, located on the Stellenrust estate. This means that this wine is a blend from three types of terroir. Nevertheless, this wine is amazing & a must try. Having said this, we go back to the production of this wine. The Syrah comes form the Helderberg (giving the pepper spice). The Cabernet Sauvignon comes from the Bottelary farm (providing the mint chocolate berries) & the Merlot comes form the Devon Valley (ensuring the fresh acidity). When the harvest was moved to the cellars, the grapes are allowed to cold macerate for about 48 hours. Each grape variety is inoculated with its own special blend of French yeast strains and fermentation on the skins vary from six till ten days. The grapes are pressed and the juice finished with a malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks. The components are blended and allowed to mature in 90% French oak & 10% American oak for about 12 months.
Tasting Notes
This amazing wine gives your nose an explosion of flavours. There are some notes of spicy mocha, vanilla derived from the American oak. The palate is rich with some ripe fruit, pepper & hints of violets, cassis, & chocolate. The Merlot gives the wine some body & vanilla tones.
Note from the winemaker: Great things are born from keeping it simple.
Recommendation
We recommend to serve this wine at a temperature between 16 & 18 degrees Celsius. A perfect serve with red meat, deer with grand berry sauce or a very nice cheese burger from the bbq.
