A.A. BADENHORST Ringmuur Cinsault 2021

Hermitake or Cinsault was once the workhorse of the South African wine industry but over the last couple of decades its star has waned in favour of the fancy Shiraz and the likes. However, an old vineyard like this deserves to be bottled on its own as a single vineyard wine. This is the third bottling of this wine on its own. 

Light hue and vibrant colour. The aromatics are lifted and pure - typical of the carbonic-style. The tannin grip is velvety and there is a wonderful fruit concentration on the palate.

Lighthueandvibrantcolour.Thearomaticsareliftedandpure-typicalofthecarbonic-style.Thetanningripisvelvetyandthereisawonderfulfruitconcentrationon the palate.

This vineyard was planted in the mid 1969 on decomposed granite soils surrounded on two sides by an old farm ring wall. The vineyard is tiny and completely different from our other Cinsault vineyards. The total yield is 950kg of wonderful grapes.

The grapes are sorted meticulously in the vineyard and transported in small picking boxes to a refrigerated container where they are left overnight to cool. The whole bunches undergo carbonic fermentation in a small, sealed tank. After 20 days of fermentation all the wine is transferred to a 600L vat. This wine was bottled unfiltered and unfined, directly off its gross lees after 11 months in cask.

955

95P. Tim Atkin (Jg. 2022)