Wine Composition
51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Malbec, 15% Cabernet Franc, 13% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot
Winemakers Comments
The iconic Left Bank-based blend from De Toren Fusion V is meticulously crafted from Bordeaux’s ‘Noble Five’ varietals and, with its complex flavors of licorice, black cherry, cedar and dark berries, it offers a stylish departure for sophisticated oenophilic tastes. Soft as spun silk, with a lingering hint of sweet fruit on the back palate, this is a wine that will only improve with age.
Awards
Tim Atkins | 94 points
Technical Analysis
Alcohol Percentage
14.7%
Total Acidity
5.2 g/l
pH
3.58
RS
2.5 g/l
Cellar Techniques
The grapes were handpicked in the cool, early morning hours and transported in small baskets to the winery’s cold room. From there, the grapes were hand sorted, de-stemmed, and gently crushed before being gravity fed into open-top fermentation tanks. Regular manual punch downs were performed during fermentation. The wine was basket pressed and gravity fed into 225 liter oak barrels (50% new, 50% second fill), where it was aged in a climatized barrel cellar for 12 months. Each varietal component was vinified and aged separately. All varietals were aged in French oak with the exception of Malbec, which was aged in American oak.
Winemaker
Name - Martin Fourie
Winery
The truth is in the vine. The guiding philosophy that elevated this boutique estate into one of South Africa’s most respected premium wine producers. De Toren began with a view. Enchanted by the estate’s panoramic vistas stretching from the Helderberg, over False Bay and across to Table Mountain and recognising the untapped potential of this unique site, the foundation for De Toren’s innovative approach to crafting world-class Bordeaux-style wines, was laid. Working closely with academics from the Stellenbosch University, an extensive soil analysis of the property embarked. A dozen sampling holes were dug on each hectare of the farm, treble the wine industry’s standard practice. Across the estate’s 25 hectares, 15 separate soil types were identified and ultimately 25 clones across the five classic Bordeaux varieties were planted. Here this philosophy of craftsmanship and exceptional care was born and was applied to everything we have done ever since.De Toren believes that complexity can be found through design. The estate’s vineyards were designed from the ground up to produce world-class wines and enormous attention was given to where and how each vineyard was planted. The design of our iconic Left- and Right-Bordeaux styled blends were planned and decided upon after which the vines were planted to match the make-up of these wines. Crafting a blended wine is like painting, with each texture, aroma and flavour being a different colour. The De Toren palette is made up of a selection of soils, rootstocks, vines, cultivars and barrels. We utilised 25 different clones across the five noble Bordeaux varieties which includes Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot which were matched to 10 different rootstocks, before being planted across fifteen different soil types. Each variety, clone and rootstock were matched to the optimal soil type to gain as much complexity from the vineyard as possible.