Torero and the Suit of Lights Carignan 2022
Vineyards
This Wellington vineyard located on Welgegund is home to 23-year-old bush-vine vineyards planted on ancient decomposed granite and clay soils, largely composed of quartz and feldspar with minor components of mica.
The vineyards lie in Wellington at the foot of the Limietberg at approximately 300m above sea level.
Winemaking & Maturation
Grapes are handpicked and cooled overnight, the following morning the grapes are placed in an open-top bin to ferment. 50% of the grapes were destemmed whilst 50% were kept whole-bunch and crushed in the traditional foot-stomping method.
Fermentation and maceration took place over 10 days, with one pump-over per day taking place to sustain cap health, not to extract further. After fermentation, the wine was replaced into old 225L French oak barrels. Malolactic fermentation was spontaneous and in Autumn the wine was sulphured for the first time.
The wine was bottled on the 16th December 2022 after spending approximately 10 months in barrels.
Tasting Notes
A very individual expression of Carignan that shows a touch of spicy, flinty reduction over sea breeze, dried kelp, salty cassis, sour black plum and exotic complexing layers of graphite and crushed granite minerality. The palate is cool, and penetrating but impressively punchy with zippy intense glassy acids, more sour black plum, tart spiced cranberry notes and a linear mouthfeel of intelligently picked fruit.
Technical Details
Alcohol: 14.86%
Residual Sugar: 2.19 g/L
Titratable Acidity: 5.36 g/L
Total SO2: 66
pH 3.61
