VINEYARDS

Location: Paardeberg (5 vineyards), Kasteelberg (3 vineyards), Malmesbury (1 vineyard), Piquetberg (1 vineyard)

Grapes: Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache, Carignan, Cinsaut & Tinta Barocca

Ageing: 24 Months prior to bottling

Soils: Granite, Slate, Gravel & Sandstone formations.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

VINIFICATION | Hand sorting of individual berries of the entire production in small “strawberry” cases. Fermentation takes place spontaneously in 3300 litre open concrete fermenters for about three weeks at a temperature of 24 °C and is then followed by a post-fermentation maceration of another three weeks. No additions are made to

the fermenting wine. Pressing takes place in a traditional basket press and the wine is transferred to the barrel (5% new) for malolactic fermentation.

AGEING | The wine spends 12 months on the lees in tight-grain French oak barrels, just 5% of them new, and is then racked into big oval casks (foudres) for an additional year of maturation on the fine lees. After two years the wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.

NOTES | Our viticultural reviews and implementations of a number of years ago are finally coming into play and are paying off but obviously our signature wines are at the spearhead of the very developments.

The 2019 Columella is the 20th bottling of what can only be described as a discovery.

The incremental growth of Mourvèdre, Carignan, Cinsaut and Tinta Barocca in the final blend has contributed much and more so on the depth and complexity of tannins. The fruit purity has also been lifted.

The 2020 Columella is the 21st bottling, and in many ways, we feel the wine has grown into its own personality, for annually the wine does change in varietal composition. Columella is a blend of its vineyards and not a blend of a given thought pattern by the winemaker.The fruit of the various sites is now perfectly knit together.

The 2020 Columella displays significantly lifted bright red crushed fruit that follows through to some darker blueberry aromas. On the palate, the wine is extremely finely knitted together and the tannin is almost seamless and the wine finishes powder dry with even more refined tannins in the aftertaste.The acidity is like a tightrope that threads through the wine from beginning to end and is mostly the workings of the Carignan and Mourvèdre in the blend. As always, it is suggested to age this wine for a minimum of 8 years.

Technical Details

Yield: 28 hl/ha

Alcohol:  13,5 %

Residual Sugar: 1,6 g/L

pH:  3,46

Total Acidity:  5,42 g/L

Total Sulphur: 78 mg/L