The Beyerskloof Pinotage boast with being South-Africa’s most popular Pinotage, and it’s no wonder. This wine has shown a fruity and enjoyable consistency year after year. Classic Pinotage. A wine made to enjoy, to drink at any occasion.
Wine Name: Beyerskloof Pinotage
Varietal(s): 100% Pinotage
Vintage: 2017
Soil: Hutton, Clovely and Kroonstad
Trellising: Mainly bush vines
Colour: Dark Ruby Red.
Bouquet: Primary fruit aromas lead to an abundance of plum and black cherries against mocha, cedar & sweet spicy notes.
Tasting notes: Strong plum flavours with velvety tannins. Well structured, yet elegant and soft, medium-bodied with a fresh and superbly balanced finish. Impressive for consistency, given the volume produced of this specific vintage. For a full flavoured experience we recommend drinking young.
Vintage Notes: It is the second year running where we had a cool dry winter which meant not enough rain. We had less than 40% of our normal rainfall leading up to the harvest and the year before that we had 50% less. So at the moment we have big drought issues. At least on the positive side there was less wind for us in Nov/Des. Also less diseases/pests and growth viger in the vineyards due the dry weather. The climate factor that played probably the biggest role in making 2017 a great vintage was the cool nights during January/Feb/ march. Harvest started on 23 January with Pinotage as usual and was 2 days earlier than last year which means it was our earliest start yet on Beyerskloof. This continued until 8 March where we finished with Cabernet Sauvignon. In general the grapes were healthy, berries was small and concentrated. On the total yield we were still 20% down on our long term average. Quality of the wines so far looks extremely good with rich dark colours and brilliant fruit on all the red cultivars. Also analytically the wines looks excellent. It a little early but I think this will be another vintage like 2009 or 2015 or maybe even better!
Winemaking: Different systems of skin contact and fermentation in open fermenters, roto tanks and fermentomatics. 4 to 5 days on skins at 25°C. After malolactic fermentation the wine was treated with oak.
Technical Information:
Total Acidity: 5.3 g/l
Alcohol: 14.0%
pH: 3.61
Total SO2: 85 mg/l
Residual Sugar: 2.7 g/l
Age of Vines: 15 – 20 years old