IT’S REALLY ALL ABOUT THE VINEYARDS
Mourvèdre is one of the most underrated red grape wine varieties and it goes by 95 other names, including Mataró, which is used in Portugal.
It is a well-known rosé variety used in regions such as Provence and the Rhône Valley in France. Our Circumstance Cape Coral Mourvèdre is produced from grapes on the slopes of the Schapenberg as well as the rest of the Stellenbosch wine growing region, characterized by relatively mild winters and long, warm summers. The vines are cultivated under dryland conditions and planted in a combination of sandstone and deep red soils which provide adequate water for this late ripening variety.
A GENTLE HAND
Grapes were hand harvested and hand sorted, followed by a gentle whole bunch pressing in our new horizontal basket press, to extract only the finest juice. No further maceration of the juice with the skins was allowed, nor the addition of extraction enzymes or settling agents, which resulted in a very light salmon colour rosé. The juice was run down via gravity into tank and left to settle naturally for 12 hours.
From there, we racked the clean juice off to wooden fermenters to start the fermentation spontaneously, relying on wild yeasts that occur naturally in the vineyard.
The reason why we ferment in our older wooden fermenters is to ensure a slow ingress of oxygen throughout the process and therefore a longer fermentation without picking up any oak aromas. The wine was then left on the primary lees for an extended period to add further complexity before bottling.
AND A FEW PRAYERS TO MOTHER NATURE – THE 2023/24 GROWING SEASON
We were happy with excellent Winter conditions during 2023 season -receiving over 1000 mm of rain in 2023 but also saw extreme flooding during this period. The Winter days and nights were nice and cool to ensure that the vines were able to go into a proper dormancy. The dams were replenished and the groundwater reserves looked good.
Once Spring came along it was accompanied by strong winds and consistently warmer days. Véraison was also about 10 days earlier than in 2022. The strong winds affected fruit set as well as the vineyard canopies and we could see that the vines were stressed.
We started picking our earlier blocks at around the 3rd week of January. From the beginning of February the temperatures normalised and we only finished picking during the first week of March.
We saw a lot of bunches on the vines but the berries were tiny. With these tiny berries comes lovely concentration and bright acids. This vintage is definitely smaller but it is packed full of flavour.
A TASTING NOTE FROM THE GLASS OF NADIA LANGENEGGER
A delightfully pale colored rosé. Cape Coral shows a lot of white and yellow fruit aromas especially melon combined with floral notes such as orange blossoms. The palate shows great length and a balanced acidity. Traditionally, the wine is served chilled on its own, but also marries well with the combination of spicy, tuna-based sushi and soy sauce.
THE NUMBERS (22 000 bottles produced)
Alc: 13 %
RS: 1.4 g/l
TA: 4.5 g/l
pH: 3.38