Tasting notes
An elegant bouquet of cedar, graphite and a touch of forest fruit. Juicy red and blackcurrant flavours with a hint of savoury notes and a long finish. Ideal with beef fillet, oxtail stew and hard cheeses.
Why we recommend this wine
Family owned wine maker who focuses on what they do best, the making of the wine. Full and rich but still within the borderline of the ABV range that we consider acceptable (14.5%).
The wine
This wine is a blend of 44% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Merlot and 23% Petit Verdot from Vineyards around Stellenbosch. The vineyards are specially selected according to their age and location, mostly unirrigated and all low yielding (4 to 6 t/ha). This gives a pure expression of its environment in the wine. The grapes are ripened to peak maturity (between 24 and 25 degrees brix) before being hand harvested and delivered to the cellar at which point they are placed in a cold store overnight at 4 degrees Celsius.
After destemming the berries pass over a sorting table for the removal of all unwanted material. The berries then fall through a crusher and drop, via gravity, into small open wooden and stainless steel fermenters. Fermentation takes place by the yeast naturally occurring on the grape and can take anything up to 14 days to complete. Extraction occurs through regular pump overs and punch downs. Once fermentation has completed the wine may stay on the skins for an additional period of time which is dependent on the tannin development and ripeness, after which the wine is drained off and pressed in a vertical basket press.
Malolactic fermentation takes place in barrel after which the wine is racked and returned to barrel for further maturation. Maturation takes place in small 225 liter French barriques of which 29% is new and lasts for 22 months with regular rackings. The wine received no fining or filtration before bottling.
The wine estate
Miles Mossop Wines has a simple winemaking philosophy, “source grapes from exceptional vineyards, pick them at the correct time and help guide them through the natural process of winemaking to produce expressive, individual wines of the highest quality, wines that I enjoy to drink”.
milesmossopwines.com
Food and wine
Best served with venison pie, beef fillet with a red wine sauce, an oxtail stew or Boeuf bourguignon. The wine also pairs well with hard cheeses such as a strong Cheddar or Comte. Also see our guide to pairing food and wine here. We recommend decanting this wine about an hour before serving.
Did you know?
Hand-picked grapes are chilled using cool rooms before crushing to enable grape skins to be in contact with the juice before any alcohol is formed. This way anthocyanin (a type of flavonoid, a class of compounds with antioxidant effects) extraction is enhanced, as is the extraction of aroma and flavour compounds, improving the overall quality of the wine produced.