IXIA · HEMEL-EN-AARDE
PINOT NOIR

Vintage 2019

WINEMAKING

The grapes were carefully selected from the top of the valley of Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge. Hand-picked into small lug boxes to limit pressure on the bunches, then placed into a cold-room to be kept at 5˚C overnight. The following day the bunches were hand-sorted on a conveyor, de-stemmed without pressing, and the whole berries allowed to fall directly into the open-topped fermenters. Cold maceration ensued for 3 – 4 days at < 10°C until the juice started fermenting naturally from indigenous yeasts. Pigeage (punching down) was done once a day, only by hand, for a gentle extraction. The wine spent 15 days on the skins before pressing, and thereafter racked and left to complete malolactic fermentation and maturation in only French oak barrels for 11 months (50% 2nd-fill and 50% 3rd-fill).

TASTING NOTES

The 2019 vintage allowed us to fully show the different expression in the fruit that we get from our vineyard sites in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley. The blend is a delicately layered wine that displays the usual hallmark red fruit aromas of cranberry, raspberry, blackberry, and slight hints of Turkish Delight on the nose. On the palate it shows of bright, seductive, and succulent fruit followed by more gentle black fruit down the middle, whilst the balanced acid and tension on the sides combine well with the velvety-soft tannins to give the wine a grippy backbone and long lingering finish.