Description
Stormy Hope Petit Verdot
Cape of storms, thy spectre fled,
See, the angel Hope, instead,
Lights from heaven upon thine head;
an extract from A Voyage Round the World by James Montgomery.
And so regales the history of the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias rounding Cape Point on the 12 March 1488, naming it the “Cape of Storms”. His King, John 11, deemed it poor advertising for a new land and wanted a name which would ring bright and so renaming it “Cape of Good Hope” The allegorical figure of Hope being used on the first stamps of South Africa. So it was a combination of these names for our latest Reserve Petit Verdot – Stormy Hope.
Petit Verdot is inky black in colour and has high natural acidity. Being such a bold wine, it is commonly added in less than 10% of most wine blends.It’s been a favourite grape of mine with aromas of plum, lilac, violet and sage with gravel-like minerality.
The name Petit Verdot (‘small green’) refers to one of the main problems with the grape in France from where it originates, and that because it is a late ripener it does not always reach full maturity in the Bordeaux climate. We do not have this problem in our climate and is a stunning wine in its own right.
Alcohol 14.31% vol
Extract 29.7 g/L
Residual sugar 1.1 g/L
Total SO2 88 mg/L
Total acid 5.7 g/L
pH 3.84
Maturation potential up to 10-12 years
Winemaking
The first and foremost observation made about the wines is often the colour.
Above all, these are perhaps some of the darkest, deepest colored wines discovered. This is also a result of a combination of the terroir and vinification process.
The cellar only produces in particular a small quantity of wine and assumes a hands-on and conscientious approach at each step.
Absolutely with creativity, the whole wine package fine-tuned.
Interference therefore kept to a minimum during the wine making process.
The grapes are most importantly handled as gently as possible.
The grapes are finally harvested into small fruit bins, where they are checked and sorted before being lightly crushed and destalked.
Red Wines
The red grapes are fermented in open stainless steel tanks using naturally occurring yeasts from the vineyard.
Fermentation temperatures are 28 – 30° C. By using indigenous yeasts, the wine displays the unique character of the terroir and vineyard.
White Wines
The white grapes are crushed and left on the skins for a 2 hours contact period.
The must then settled for 1 day in a settling tank and then racked straight to barrel where it will ferment.