Sadie Family Columella 2013

Sadie Family Columella 2013

Vineyards

Swartland, Western Cape

Winemaking and Maturation

Hand sorting each berry for the entire production in small “strawberry” cases. Fermentation in 2000 litre open wooden fermenters. Fermentation is about three weeks at a temperature of 24 °C, followed by maceration after fermentation for another three weeks. Pressing occurs in an old basket press, and the wine is transferred directly to the barrel for malolactic fermentation.

Oaking: French oak barrels, Bordeaux Traditional selection. Tight grain. The wine ages for 18 months on the lees, followed by a rack and an additional six months of ageing on the fine lees. The total time spent is two years.

Tasting Notes

“The 2013 vintage was in many respects, one that came and went easily. It is often these vintages that get missed.

Columella this year had from the outset a very tight texture and inner core to the wine, and even at the time of the first 12 months racking from barrel to foudre, we knew that Columella 2013 is an obvious candidate for long-term ageing. The aromatics show slightly darker fruit, with the ripeness just outside the red fruit spectrum – approaching the blueberry fruit dynamics. Amazingly, however, this is the lowest alcohol Columella bottled since the maiden 2000, but even though we have seemingly reduced ripeness on paper, in the bottle we did not sacrifice texture or volume. The real gain was in the acidity and overall freshness and this might just become one of the most unique bottlings to date.

The result is a wine that one could say is swift on its feet, one that has a weight that is almost imperceptible to the senses.” – Eben Sadie

Technical Details

Composition: Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault.