De Morgenzon - Maestro Red, Stellenbosch - 2015 (750ml)

Wine Composition

42% Cabernet Sauvignon, 29% Merlot, 15% Malbec, 10% Petit Verdot, 4% Cabernet Franc

Winemakers Comments

This wine has notes of cassis with rich, red fruit, dried herbs, perfume and plums on the nose. The palate is soft and silky with integrated flavours of cigar box and black fruit.

Awards

 93 pts - Tim Atkin MW South Africa Report 2017

Technical Analysis

Alcohol Percentage 

14.0%

TA

5.6 g/l

pH 

3.6

RS

1.8 g/l

Cellar Techniques

The fruit was carefully hand sorted and naturally fermented, the whole berry. Post fermentation maceration was allowed for two weeks, followed by gentle pressing. Maturation was for a total of 18 months in French oak, in a selection of 300-liter casks and 3000-liter Foudres. The wine was bottled with minimal fining and minimal filtration.

2015 was one of the earliest vintages on record and careful attention had to be paid in the vineyards to ensure ripe fruit was harvested. This was achieved through effective crop thinning and selective harvest. Soil moisture levels had to be managed to extend the ripening as late as possible. Disease pressure was low and fruit health and fruit concentration were excellent. The earlier vintage resulted in more prominent tannins, hence the extraction in the winery was adjusted accordingly.

Winemaker

Name - Carl van der Merwe

Winery

DeMorgenzon, ‘the morning sun,’ was so named as it is the first part of the Stellenboschkloof valley to see the sun because of its high altitude and aspects. We cover the top southern and eastern slopes of Ribbokkop, overlooking the pinnacle of Kanonkop from where a cannon was fired to alert the farms in the region that a ship had put into Table Bay. The first road from Cape Town to Stellenbosch ran through the Stellenbosch Kloof.

In 2003 Wendy and Hylton Appelbaum bought DeMorgenzon and have since transformed DeMorgenzon into a 224-acre garden vineyard, where abundant wildflowers grow between the vines.