Wine Composition

49% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Syrah & 26% Merlot, Cabernet Franc 10%

Winemakers Comments

Attractive medium deep red colour. Lovely array of spices, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon, at first with blackcurrant and other dark berries. Fine, substantially structured palate. Layers of dark berry and cherry fruit underneath the spices linger on a long dry finish. This will enhance most red meat dishes and especially a classic slow cooked beef casserole in winter. Drink now to 2036

Awards

Tim Atkin | 95 points

Technical Analysis

Alcohol Percentage

13.63%

TA

5.2 g/l

pH

3.66

RS

1.39 g/l

Vinification

A difficult and challenging vintage. Winter started late, but we had enough cold to ensure good budbreak in spring. We had below average winter rain, but a good normal spring. An early hot summer with several heatwaves throughout the season meant lower growth and a smaller crop with small berries. The little bit of supplementary water we could apply (sooner than ever before) went a long way to help keep quality high. Harvest was our earliest ever, starting more than a week early. The hot weather and particularly warm evenings meant acidity was low and we had to pick earlier than usual. Thankfully cooler weather arrived in the middle of February, preserving the complex flavours to produce the best wine of the vintage 

Winemaker

David Trafford

Winery

A small family winery at the end of the Upper Blaauwklippen Road in the mountains above Stellenbosch, South Africa. Established in 1992 by architect David Trafford & artist wife Rita with the focus on high end red wines of great intensity & longevity, using minimal intervention production methods. Our home vineyard on the Mont Fleur farm, high up (393m above sea level) on the Eastern slopes of the Helderberg Mountain. The closest mountain in Stellenbosch to the sea. These complex granitic based soils have an ideal clay content that allows good drainage and sufficient water retention at the same time. 

ELEVATION 393: A selection of the best parcels of vines and the best barrels of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah & Cabernet Franc that expresses the best of each vintage.