Sadie Family Columella 2016

Sadie Family Columella 2016

Vineyards

Our viticultural reviews and implementations over a number of years are finally coming into play and are paying off in the resultant wines. Columella, as one of the signature wines, will always be at the spearhead of developments. Paardeberg (2 vineyards), Kasteelberg (4 vineyards), Malmesbury (1 vineyard), Piquetberg (1 vineyard)

Winemaking and Maturation

Hand sorting of individual berries of the entire production in small “strawberry” cases. Fermentation takes place spontaneously in 3300 litre open concrete fermenters for three weeks. No additions are made to the fermenting wine.

12 months on the lees in tight-grain French oak barrels,  5% of new. 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.

Tasting Notes

This 2016 Columella has a much deeper colour and concentration and is still very compact and in need of obvious ageing, but it is already showing great complexity in that the aromatics are not a singular line, but the coming together of many aspects. The aromas are a combination of bright fresh red fruits which then pass over to the riper black stone fruit. The wine is also very earthy and seems to live on a bed of freshly ploughed earth – and then there is the appearance of much darker graphite aromatics as well.

Technical Details

Composition: Syrah, Grenache, Cinsault, Carignan, Tinta Barocca, Mourvedre