The Chocolate Block 2004

R850,00

TA – Tim Atkin MW
PG – Platter’s Wine Guide

Hints of bitter dark chocolate and spicy aromatics drive the nose of this wine. It has depth, mid-palate richness and sexy ripe tannins. While the Syrah and Grenache Noir offer the fruit and aromatics for this wine, the Cabernet Sauvignon offers structural components, the Viognier perfume and the Cinsault a juicy, ripe profile. Although already accessible, the drinker will almost certainly be rewarded as this wine develops over the next 5-8 years.

SKU 04CBREDZAB75 Categories 2004, Blend, Cape of Good Hope, Library, Library Wines, Red, Special Feature, The Chocolate Block

Vineyard & Winemaking
Technical Analysis

The 3rd vintage of this premium blended wine comprises of 124 barrique in total in the following proportion: Syrah 55 barrique, Grenache Noir 31 barrique, Cabernet Sauvignon 21 barrique, Cinsault 14 barrique, and Viognier 3 barrique. As before the Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah were from a Malmesbury vineyard, the Grenache Noir from Citrusdal, the Cinsault from Wellington and for the first time the Viognier component came from the vineyards at Boekenhoutskloof. All fermented separately with all of the Grenache noir being blended with a proportion of Syrah before maturation. This is due to the high oxidation potential of the cultivar. After alcoholic fermentation, malolactic fermentation was completed spontaneously in a combination of new and used French oak casks. All barrique were left on the primary lees for 15 months, an egg-white fining followed by a coarse filtration led to bottling in July 2005. For the final blend, 124 barrels were selected.

Alcohol: 14.84% vol
RS: 2.2 g/l
TA: 5.11 g/l
pH: 3.82