Boekenhoutskloof, Franschhoek Cabernet Sauvignon 2017

Our Franschhoek Cabernet Sauvignon was sourced from four individual parcels adjacent to one another on a south-westerly aspect of our Franschhoek valley, where the soil is predominantly sandy loam over granitic bedrock. 2017 was an exceptional vintage for Cabernet, akin to 2015 and was preceded by a moderate growing season. We adhered to traditional picking dates and the Cabernets came in showing healthy fruit and a very high skin to pulp ratio, resulting in wines with exceptional tannins and classic phenolic structures, yet still offering wonderful natural acidity. We again opted to blend in a very small percentage Cabernet Franc from our old vineyard on the farm, contributing subtle fragrance and finesse to the dark fruit spectrum.

Our intention was to create a textbook claret and to respect the signature Boekenhoutskloof Cabernet style. We worked with a classic dark berry fruit profile and managed to capture the full, rich character and deep flavours offered by the vintage. We opted for gentle vinification to avoid huge, monstrous wines. Grapes were picked by hand into small lug boxes, bunch sorted with berry selection and gently destalked. The grapes underwent a cold maceration in traditional concrete vessels and then fermented at temperatures between 27 and 30°C with frequent pump-overs to extract aromas, colour and tannins. After alcoholic fermentation a prolonged malolactic fermentation occurred naturally in 225 litre barriques. The wine was matured in French oak from our preferred coopers, Sylvain and Saury.

• Alcohol: 14.80% vol
• RS: 1.42 g/l
• TA: 5.39 g/l
• pH: 3.63
• W.O. Franschhoek